A common question that comes up during the fall months is “What should I do about the leaves that fall? Mulch them? Rake them?”

If you have leaves that fall when you are still mowing your lawn you can mow directly over them to chop them into small pieces. They will decompose and add organic material to your soil and help enrich the soil profile of your property. Be sure to grind the leaves to a fine texture which means you may have to run them over a couple times during your mowing. This will not harm the turf!

If you are done mowing for the year and have a lot of leaves on the property where you can no longer see the grass poking through, you should either rake or blow these leaves off the turf. When you leave heavy leaves on top of the lawn the winter snow will smother the plants and cause areas of die off. When this happens you have a greater potential for crabgrass and weeds to invade this area until you can reseed the lawn again in the fall.

Keep your leaves under control to help your lawn look as good as you remember it in spring!