Raking leaves, bagging them up, and hauling them away is standard autumnal practice, but scientists and conservationists are beginning to argue you should leave your leaves to be mulched – and risk the side-eye from your tidy-lawned neighbors.
Taking away the leaves does the lawn no favors and simply adds to landfills, claims the National Wildlife Federation.
"Let fallen leaves stay on your property," naturalist David Mizejewski told the National Wildlife Federation.
Michigan State researchers began studying the effect of leaves
on lawncare in the early '90s. They piled leaves onto grass plots to see
how much it took to kill a lawn, and they discovered that leaf-covered
lawns were among the first to turn green in the spring.
"It's not only not a problem, it's awesome," says Dr. Thomas Nikolai, a specialist in Michigan State University's plant and soil science department, in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor.
Yes, big piles of leaves can inhibit grass growth and even kill the lawn, but mowing the leaf-covered grass breaks leaves into small pieces that enrich the soil and enhance the lawn's "natural fertility," Dr. Nikolai explains.
"It's almost common sense," he says. "Where the leaves fall, just mulch them in."
Another benefit: A chemical common in maple leaves can discourage dandelions and crabgrass from growing, according to Nikolai's research with Drs. Paul Rieke and Bruce Branham.
Nikolai describes the new lawn care technique as a "win-win-win," because it saves the time and effort of raking, improves the health of the grass, and keeps giant leaf bags out of landfills.
If you really must remove your leaves, says Nikolai, take them no further than the local soccer field.
This suggestion represents a shift from the most common approach to suburban lawn care, which requires conscientious homeowners to rake up all the leaves, creating a tidy lawn and preventing slimy yard build-up under winter rain and snow.
Robert Fulghum described his desire to let fallen leaves lie as downright countercultural in his bestselling 1989 book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten."
Mine is the only yard in the neighborhood with leaves, in fact.... I like the way it looks. I like the way it looks very much. My wife does not. The gardening magazine does not like it, either. Leaves should be raked. There are rules....Mulching solves the aesthetic problem of leaving leaves on the lawn (read: that brown leaf slime that emerges from under the snow in the spring), writes Rebecca Finneran of Michigan State University, because the leaf pieces will sink into the lawn shortly after mowing. That may not satisfy the strictest of yard-keepers, but even some of Mr. Fulghum's "gardening magazines" may relent.
There is a reason for leaves. There is no reason for mowed grass. So say I.
"The good news is, you don’t have to rake (leaves) entirely," Felder Rushing wrote for HGTV. "A thin layer of chopped leaves spread evenly over the lawn will compost quite readily, 'feeding' your lawn and the earthworms underneath."
Quotes from the article above that were apparently glossed over: "big piles of leaves can inhibit grass growth and even kill the lawn;" "Where the leaves fall, just mulch them in saves the time and effort of raking;" "Mulching solves the aesthetic problem of leaving leaves on the lawn (read: that brown leaf slime that emerges from under the snow in the spring)" These important messages clarify what is actually meant by "leaving the leaves" and best practices for employing the method.
ReplyDeleteLeaving the leaves does not mean just leaving them on the ground to rot, because as the article makes clear, "big piles of leaves can inhibit grass growth and even kill the lawn." This also goes for simply raking leaves onto landscaped beds; the plants suffer under a layer of rotting leaves that on the one hand keeps too much moisture above the ground around plant stems and tree trunks while also keeping rain water from seeping into the ground where plants can use it.
The other quotes refer to "mulching" the leaves, the action of pulverizing the leaves with a mower or other device so that the small pieces can more readily decompose and sink into the soil.
So while “leaving the leaves” is an environmentally superior method of handling fallen leaves, at St. Bartholomew's we have been unable to subscribe to the practice because of the limited volunteer cadre we are able to muster to do the job properly. In the past we have asked one or 2 men to rake the leaves – an arduous task that was often never satisfactorily completed. I do not know what happened to all the collected leaves. Some of them ended up raked onto the landscape beds. This practice elicited numerous complaints from parishioners who felt that the practice made the campus looked unkempt. One was left wondering, “Why did we pay money if the leaves were not removed?” We have not had the person-power to mulch or pulverize the leaves and then rake the debris into the landscape beds. Instead, the leaves were simply raked onto the beds without being mulched, hence creating the problems referred to above.
The article makes a compelling case for “leaving the leaves.” In fact, I do this myself at my home. But the issue also requires considerations of context and practicality. There is the matter of size. The leaves blown off the grounds at St. B’s last week took up almost ¼ of the parking lot after they were deposited there. They were pulverized by a mower and then vacuumed into a large truck. They were then taken to an offsite mulching or composting facility. The issue of leaving the mulched leaves here at St. B’s was considered. However, there is really very little area for keeping them on site. The perimeter around the parking lot has often been looked at for landscape use but has been rejected because of the need for overflow parking. Neither would we have saved money by keeping the leaves on site. So practically, in the context of St. B’s at the current time, it did not make sense to mulch the leaves ourselves or to keep mulched leaves on site. These are issues we can discuss as fall approaches again next year. Because next year we will have a whole new crop of fallen leaves to deal with!