To a lot of common people , some of the bestfallmemories admit raking and jumping in vast piles of leave of absence , before shove them into bag and set them by the curbing to be hale off to thelandfill .
Some folks ( my hand is up here ) are honest-to-god enough to think of when burn leaves was standard practice . These days , however , neither is look upon with approving eyes .
Environmental Impacts
Raking , bagging and hauling leaves forth might make your yard look like a showplace , but it ’s no longer debate environmentally friendly . Why ? Well , like we said , those lawn turn down bags go to the landfill .
And according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , in 2018,yard trimmings answer for for 35.4 million tons(32.1 metric tons ) of municipal solid waste material . The legal age of that — 22.3 million gobs ( 20.2 million metric tons ) — was recovered and composted or mulched in country programs , the EPA articulate , but 10.5 million slews ( 9.6 million metric tons ) still went to the landfill . That ’s more than 8 pct of total wastefulness generated in 2018 .
An Easy Alternative to Bagging Leaves
However , if you have a lawn that you desire to wield , getting disembarrass of the precipitate leave-taking is essential because , not only will wet leaves smother andkill the gage , they can also prevent new ontogeny from taking grasp come springtime . Also , sozzled leaves left on the grass will break down and cause damage to the lawn .
So what are you to do ?
Rather than skim and sacking , the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension service suggestsmowing the leaves with a mulcher alternatively .
By mulch teetotal leaf , which essentially shred them into small , dime - sized musical composition , you ’ve created free nutrient for your railyard . The bantam pieces of tear up leaves will filter down between the blades of grass and add lively nutrients , likenitrogen , back to the soil .
Why and When to Mulch
The ideal clock time to mulch the leave is when you’re able to see the blades of locoweed come out poking through the blanket of leaf . That may mean weekly mulchings , calculate on the sizing of your yard and the number of trees .
You do n’t want to completely cover your lawn with a thick bed of mulch , so if the leave get too heavy , rake the special ones into a pile and then spread them around your trees or bush .
In addition to adding back nutrients , mulching your garden has other benefit : Ithelps keep weeds at bay , holds wet in the soil and helps temperate soil temperatures .
Your lawn , trees , shrub and the environment will give thanks you for mowing instead of raking the leaves .
