Should I mulch? Or bag my leaves this fall?

Univ Minn ^ | October | John Trappe

[campaignPete R-CT]

Many homeowners wonder if they should be collecting and removing tree leaves from their lawns prior to mowing, or if the tree leaves can be mulched (mown) into the lawn. Like many recommendations for lawn management decisions, this one can also be answered with the phrase, "it depends."

[campaignPete R-CT]

You probably don't need to rake ...

[Red Badger]

Here in Florida we need mulch, as the sand just lets the water drain away.................

[gibsonguy]

Rake up the leaves. dead leaves act as a blanket for insects that live by eating your lawn and the leaves block the sun.
Get out there.

[GreyFriar]

I mow up the leaves with my lawn tractor and collect them in the attached bags. When the bags are full, I go through the back fence and spread them on the harvested field next to my house. Of course, this only works if you have a field next door.

[Dutch Boy]

I bag mine with a mower and compost them with lawn clippings, food scraps and garden waste. I use the compost in our veggie garden. We have mostly clay dirt and it needs all the help it can get.

[HangnJudge]

Blow leaves into the woods

[PGalt]

I mulched mine for many years and filled the flower beds. I 100% bag now. That reminds me...my beautiful orange & red colored maple leaves are almost all down.
My pears drop !st. My mulberry leaves are still all green. They are always last to drop at my house. Lots of pine needles also to rake up.

[hercuroc]

You can do this too if you don’t like your neighbor.

[Bonemaker]

Only if you’ve got nothing else better to do. The last time I mow our acre with lawn tractor...just before Thanksgiving...takes care of the leaves.

[oldasrocks]

I have one of those big mulcher wagons. With 200 adult trees on the place we get lots of leaves. I pile them, add pure nitrogen and it a couple yrs have a yard of nice black dirt. Original pile bigger that a pickup and 10 ft high.
Down here in Missouri you have to add a lot of lime too as oak leaves are very acidic.

[blueunicorn6]

Leaves.....nature’s little solar collectors.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

If you bag and see how much crap you are mulching into your yard you’ll realize that mulching once or twice a summer is all you need.

It just doesn’t add up.

I’ve bagged well over a hundred bushels out of my yard this year and there is no way that could be mulched. You will have to dethatch every year.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

To mulch, or not to mulch, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to bag
The sticks and leaves of outrageous autumn,
Or to rake piles against a sea of leaves
And by raking end them. To bag—to dispose,
No more; and by a bag to say we end

The back-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To bag, to rake;
To mulch, perchance to fertiize, there's the rub:
For in that fertilization of yard what fungus may come,
When we have mulched into this fertile soil,
Must give us pause—there's the rake
That makes calamity of so long weekend.

[sageburn]

I live on 44 acres, lots of trees. I mow five acres surrounding my house. Of those five acres I only rake (not by hand, I use a tractor and raking equipment) one acre. The rest of the leaves get mulched or blown away by the wind.

[Repeal The 17th]

I like to burn mine.

[hinckley buzzard]

For 40 years I have lived in a house in a clearing in the woods. NE Ohio hardwoods. Every year the lawn is covered completely with leaves. Every year, late grass cutting with a regular power mower chops up the leaves into small pieces. Every Spring when the snow melts and the temperature turns warm, the lawn is deep green and healthy. Nary a leaf to be seen. Never raked a single Leaf and see no reason Why I ever would.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I am going to try something new this year....collecting them for my compost bins.

Previously I just let the wind blow them down the street so it was a problem for someone else.

[Boogieman]

Or for the urban FReeper, on to your neighbor’s lawn ;)

[GreyFriar]

Very late last fall I mowed up a section of the neighbor’s leaves on their lawn after they had left for Florida for the winter. It could be considers ‘being nice’ but it also fell under the proviso “I can mow and move the leaves in his yard or wait a couple of days until the blow into my yard, thus I did his strip of yard the same day I did mine.

[Noumenon]

Leave the wood chipper free for those pesky Trump sign stealers.