Put Fall Leaves to Work in Your Landscape

Put away the rake, break out the mower and recycle leaves right where they fall.

Use your mower to shred the leaves into quarter sized pieces. As long as you can see the grass blades through the leaf pieces your lawn will be fine.

Or use them as mulch in your garden. Just attach your mower’s bagger then shred and collect leaves for mulching perennials, trees and shrubs. Don’t pile leaves over the crown of perennials or against shrub stems and tree trunks.

Bag and save some leaves for next year’s annual flower and vegetable gardens. Stash the bags out of site behind foundation plantings or under evergreens.

Incorporate shredded leaves into the top 8 to12 inches of soil in new and vacant gardens. The leaves break down over winter, improving the soil for next season.

And don’t forget to add any extras to your compost pile this fall.

A bit more information: Lay bird netting over groundcover beds as soon as leaves begin to fall. The leaves will fall onto the netting material, making clean up easy. Simply drag the leaf covered bird netting off the groundcover, recycle the leaves as described above and reset the net over the groundcovers. Repeat as needed.