Recently, we’ve spent a good deal of time talking about the impact of leaves on your lawn. Like everything else confusion can reign when it comes to most lawn care chores but the fact of the matter is that you can’t “leave” them there……can you? Heck no. It would create a terrible mess and your yard would look terrible.
So other than the way your property looks, why should you even bother to rake the leaves off your lawn? Well, you don’t necessarily have to rake the leaves off your lawn, you can choose to blow them off with a leaf blower or mulch them with a lawn mower, like we discussed in previous entries. The idea here is to simply to get rid of leaves that have fallen onto your lawn. Not terribly complicated right? But why bother in the first place? Well, the main reason other than the fact that your property would begin to look like the abandoned one down the street is the fact that your lawn needs to breath. Leaving a thick, heavy layer of fallen leaves on your lawn can quickly smother it over the winter and the result is often turf diseases like “snow mold” which is a lawn fungus that thrives under the cover of snow.
Another reason is that most lawns, except for those in the deep south consist of one or more types of cool-season grasses. Turf types like bluegrass, rye grass and all the various fescue types get their name because they are most active during the cooler seasons of the year. If you don’t consistently make an effort to remove (or mulch) the leaves on your lawn you are essentially robbing the turf of air, water and sunlight that it requires to continue it’s growth right up until dormancy.
So, we are sorry to say that you are not off the hook this weekend and you have to remember that the kids love those giant leaf piles!