Home & Garden

Leafs on lawn, shrubs and trees

  • Last Updated:
  • Dec 10th, 2017 8:04 am
Deal Addict
Feb 26, 2016
1562 posts
541 upvotes
Vaughan

Leafs on lawn, shrubs and trees

curious what everyone does with the leafs that fall on your lawn, shrubs and trees. i live in a corner lot and get quite a bit. i know alot of people in my neighbourhood just blow them away from their yard so it ends up landing on my property. I normally rake them all up and bag the ones that fall on the grass. for leafs that fall on the tree and shrubs, i just leave them there. I've heard they just keep the roots of the trees/shrubs warm and it's natural anyway. i've heard other people mowing over the leafs that fall on the grass. curious what everyone else does and the rationale behind it.
9 replies
Deal Addict
Aug 30, 2011
3537 posts
1279 upvotes
Ottawa
I have no lawn front or back, just shrubs and plants like black eyed Susan's and grasses. I just leave the leaves where they fall, they eventually decompose. I did take when I had lawn, or ran the mower over them and left them.
Banned
Nov 17, 2014
942 posts
763 upvotes
Ontario
Leave them on your gardens, mulch them up on the grass. There's no point to bagging them not sure why people do it. Mulched leaves actually act as a natural lawn fertilizer.
Deal Addict
Mar 27, 2015
1550 posts
677 upvotes
Thornhill, ON
We rake ours all up because leaving them on the lawn and in the gardens makes them look messy and neglected. We used to mulch them with the lawnmower and just leave them but they take forever to break down. So now everything gets raked and bagged. It looks much nicer and cleaner when they're all picked up.
Deal Guru
Jul 7, 2017
10212 posts
5525 upvotes
SW corner of the cou…
You can pile it up, alternate layers with green (as in green, not dried and brown) waste, and let it compost. Great for feeding your lawn, flower/vegetable beds, or whatever.

If you leave it on the grass unmulched, it'll kill the grass (at least in coastal BC where grass is green all winter). Best to mulch and leave it in a thin area. I put the leaves in bags and dole it out into the compost bins when I lived in Vancouver. Ended up with more compost than we could use. I do the same for grass - never collected the stuff but let it compost (fast).

As for as getting the mulched stuff to compost, you need moisture. If it's dry, decomposition takes a lot longer.
I smile when I see container ships sailing past my house laden with stuff made in China
Deal Addict
Feb 26, 2016
1562 posts
541 upvotes
Vaughan
Copper1212 wrote: Leave them on your gardens, mulch them up on the grass. There's no point to bagging them not sure why people do it. Mulched leaves actually act as a natural lawn fertilizer.
icantfigureoutausername wrote: We rake ours all up because leaving them on the lawn and in the gardens makes them look messy and neglected. We used to mulch them with the lawnmower and just leave them but they take forever to break down. So now everything gets raked and bagged. It looks much nicer and cleaner when they're all picked up.
for some reason, the leaves in my neighbourhood trees haven't fallen off until very recently (probably last week). probably because of the mild weather. I don't mind mulching over it except that i had already taken out oil in my lawn mower and stored it away. Curious if there are any issues if you just let the leaves without mulching them.
Deal Addict
Mar 27, 2015
1550 posts
677 upvotes
Thornhill, ON
Yeah, its been a strange fall because so many are still on the trees and this week is the last garden waste pick up for the city of Toronto, so you might have to store them. If you leave them they will certainly not break down over the winter and you'll have a bunch of slimy leaves to clean up come the spring. They can get moldy, too, but that's never negatively affected our lawns. I'm really anal about my property but I wouldn't bother at this point, unless we get some more mild weather, then I'd be out there raking. Otherwise, I'd forget about them until spring, especially if the bags won't get picked up anyways. Any other year and we'd all be cleaned up by now.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 5, 2004
27438 posts
6807 upvotes
I run over them with the lawnmower. Yeah it does look a little messy for a while, but they do decompose. I have over 40 trees on my property, so there's not a chance in hell I'm raking up all the leaves
Sr. Member
Mar 19, 2013
728 posts
228 upvotes
Prince Albert, Sask.
I pickup the leaves with my lawnmower in the fall. Leaves in hedges and plants, clean them up in the spring. The leaves provide root system protection from the sometimes harsh climate we have. I do very little raking. I dump the leaves in my truck and take them to the landfill.
Banned
Nov 17, 2014
942 posts
763 upvotes
Ontario
So people who rake and bag leaves do you then go out and buy fertilizer? I just find the whole process funny. People are so quick to get away from natures intentions and then spread chemicals and fertilizer. Mulched leaves are free natural fertilizer, same with lawn clippings. Neither can be hardly seen when chopped up.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)