Love ’em and Leave ’em

LEAVE ‘EM

• Shred your leaves with a mulching mower and leave them in place on your lawn.
• Shred them with a mulching mower and use them as mulch in your borders and flowerbeds.
• Blow them to the back of your beds where you can leave them to decompose over time providing habitat for the little critters that will become next year’s butterflies, moths…
• Leave them (shredded or not) alone in wooded areas.
• Compost them in a pile or container (with or without shredding).

TOOLS

All you need are your trusty rake, a mulching mower, leaf shredder or weed whacker in a garbage can. A leaf blower or vacuum can help you remove leaves from your beds for shredding.

ISSUES

• Landscape beds – esp. with perennials – carefully remove leaves to shred them and return them in-place as a mulch. Use a leaf vacuum for easiest process.
• Too many leaves –  (remember that shredding reduces up to 10:1 in volume). “Hide” excess shredded leaves in landscape beds or (unshredded) in wooded areas. Or compost excess shredded leaves on-site.
• Last resort – transfer shredded leaves off-property for use elsewhere – share leaf mulch with a neighbor or community garden!

BENEFITS

• Save money! Reduce the need for commercial fertilizers. Never buy mulch again.
• Save effort! Mulching (shredding) leaves in-place is easier and faster than raking and bagging. Requires less manpower. (Faster, smaller work crews.)
• Returns much-needed nutrients to lawn, landscape beds and/or wooded areas.
• Supports wildlife providing shelter for the insects that pollinate our gardens, that feed the birds and other wildlife.
• Helps retain moisture, reduced need for watering in dry spells and reducing runoff.
• Protects landscape beds from frost over the winter and cools root zones in the summer.
• Lightens clay soils and gives fluff to sandy soils.
• Feeds the soil Increases biological activity of fungus, earthworms, microbes & beneficial soil organisms.
• Grass-cycling (mulching-in-place of lawn clippings) provides similar benefits for turf.
• Eliminates or reduces yard waste from the entering municipal “waste stream.”

CONCERNS (about the current leaf management approach)

• Blowing of leaves off landscape beds removes all leaf duff, loose top dirt, and beneficial organisms. Creates a biologically “sterile zone.”

• Blowing leaves leads to unnecessary noise pollution and results in airborne dust & fumes that can aggravate certain health conditions including asthma and allergies.

• Filling bags and bags with leaves is time consuming and unnecessary.

• Picking up of bags of leaves curbside often requires overtime for DPW or Parks staff.

• Transporting and disposing of leaves from curbside pickup wastes fuel and contributes to air pollution. Leaving leaves curbside results in decomposition, leaching nutrients (e.g.; excess phosphorus) into storm drains.

Make your autumn clean up easier. Love ’em and Leave ’em!