# Leave or not to Leave



## Frankp877 (Aug 1, 2019)

I'm curious what the general consensus is on removing leaves from the lawn or mulching and let them decompose into the soil. 
I've always collected and bagged the leaves but am now being told that I should just mulch them up.

Thanks


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## Powhatan (Dec 15, 2017)

Mulching leaves returns nutrients to the soil.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Not to mention it's considerably less work to mulch them in.


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## knomore (Jul 23, 2018)

I'm like a 1/2 and 1/2 kinda guy. I rake and clean up when I get piles of them, but as they fall little by little I just mow them in...


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## Babameca (Jul 29, 2019)

50/50 as well. On my low HOC I will bag them, mulched, will fill in my compost box and dispose the rest. On a low maintenance grass, directly mulching can be beneficial. I see a risk to do so on a below an inch, high maintenance turf. Thatch is also a concern. How much of it is going to decompose is not sure. It is very size and temp depending.
Again, that is strictly my personal strategy.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

100% mulch them. Mow twice or more often a week just to mulch them. I even mow past Christmas just to mulch leaves. They are full of nutrients and the worms will digest them in no time.


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## CPA Nerd (May 8, 2018)

g-man said:


> 100% mulch them. Mow twice or more often a week just to mulch them. I even mow past Christmas just to mulch leaves. They are full of nutrients and the worms will digest them in no time.


Do you feel that way regardless of how many leaves are on the lawn? What about a property with 6 large trees on 1/4 acre with a lawn completely covered in leaves? Just mulch and leave it be? I would think at some point it's too much and it simply can't be absorbed into the soil and would create thatch or just cover the lawn.


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Definitely mulch them. Just use common sense. Mow often while they're falling and you will find that you can process lots and lots of leaves leaving them on the lawn in little bits. Mowing reduces the volume of whole leaves by ten times. Here's some information on how to mulch:
http://www.leaveleavesalone.org/home/how-to-mulch/
This article talks about the benefits and has a number of references:
https://www.irvingtonny.gov/226/Mulching-in-place


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## LawnOrder (Sep 29, 2019)

CPA Nerd said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > 100% mulch them. Mow twice or more often a week just to mulch them. I even mow past Christmas just to mulch leaves. They are full of nutrients and the worms will digest them in no time.
> ...


@CPA Nerd - I'm a 50-50 kind of guy as well, and you've made a good point here; at some juncture, your return diminishes, and perhaps even turns an asset into a liability. Personally, I think that the smaller the leaf fragments, the better, and if you bag with a mower rather than rake, it's an easy fix to add a filter box or vent to the upper hose which will discharge the smaller pieces through a coarse screen, out onto the lawn, while allowing the rest -



- to be bagged and composted. That single compost pile yields well over five cubic yards of black gold annually, at absolutely no cost whatsoever. Want more faster? Just call Uncle Jim, and add a few pounds of worms. They're not just for lawns, you know!
.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

I mulch for the first few mows then I get way to many leaves to leave them on the lawn. I have oak trees and these leaves dont break down so easy. Also I don't like the look of the leaves all over the lawn.
Edit I also read that leaves are acidic so would mulching a bunch into your lawn with an already acidic soil not be a good thing?


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## Virginiagal (Apr 24, 2017)

Maybe you will be interested in the studies about mulching. This article summarizes the Michigan State studies done in the 90s:
http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_maintenance_leaves_turn_litter/
Mulching did not affect soil pH. Even though leaves start out as acidic, the soil buffers against pH changes, and the leaves becomes alkaline as they decompose.


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## Lawnboy25 (Aug 31, 2019)

Yes I would say to go ahead and mulch them into the smallest pieces you can. Repeated passes with your mower, ideally with a mulching blade will chop them up quickly. Obviously if you have TONS of leaves on the lawn you may want to bag most and remove. Too much will choke off the grass and you'll be raking all over again.


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## Lawnboy25 (Aug 31, 2019)

Yes I would say to go ahead and mulch them into the smallest pieces you can. Repeated passes with your mower, ideally with a mulching blade will chop them up quickly. Obviously if you have TONS of leaves on the lawn you may want to bag most and remove. Too much will choke off the grass and you'll be raking all over again.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

Virginiagal said:


> Maybe you will be interested in the studies about mulching. This article summarizes the Michigan State studies done in the 90s:
> http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_maintenance_leaves_turn_litter/
> Mulching did not affect soil pH. Even though leaves start out as acidic, the soil buffers against pH changes, and the leaves becomes alkaline as they decompose.


Good read thanks for the info...


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Only times I find mulching counterproductive are if the leaves aren't breaking down fast enough, or if there's a shaded area that stays very wet. I'm already starting to get muck in some areas like that, so I probably will try not to mulch the leaves into it.

Another option if you have an area that needs more OM due to sandy soil but doesn't have a lot of trees, is to collect some leaves and spread and mulch them into the area where they're most needed.


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## Frankp877 (Aug 1, 2019)

Thank you for the information. I believe I will be joining the 50/50 group. Having 4 big oak trees blankets my yard with lots of leaves. Some years I feel they all fall at once LOL


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## Tsmith (Aug 11, 2017)

Leaves are free compost so it's beneficial to mulch them and it's also easier than bagging and or blowing to the street.

I have neighbors who spend numerous hours blowing, bagging, and moving leaves to the street to be picked up with half blowing back into their lawns.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

I bag them and dump them in my garden beds. Sorry but vegetables are edible, grass is not 

If I didn't have a garden I'd mulch them into the grass.


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## Suburban Jungle Life (Mar 1, 2018)

I'm 50/50. I mow until the trees take a massive dump. Then it's to the compost pile.


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## JERSEY (Sep 9, 2018)

what is the thought on pine needles and that they are acidic?

i have a couple 100 pine trees around.....so its alot


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

I have a bunch of mature oaks and hickorys. I try to pick up every last leaf either by blowing or bagging clippings. It's a cleaner look and it works for me.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

JERSEY said:


> what is the thought on pine needles and that they are acidic?
> 
> i have a couple 100 pine trees around.....so its alot


I don't think the pine needles acidify the soil

https://extension.unh.edu/blog/do-pine-trees-and-pine-needles-make-soil-more-acidic


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## JERSEY (Sep 9, 2018)

yea, thats interesting.

i just blew around 500 pine cones today with my little wonder.....then cut the grass.

we get alot of debris here in the pines.


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## FuzzeWuzze (Aug 25, 2017)

My tree's dump everything they have over the span of like 7-10 days, so its a bit much to mulch. Each day during the worst windy days there's a good layer of leaves that dont mulch, or my mower does not mulch them that well. Usually i blow most of the leaves into the street, mulch them in the street as many times as i can stand, then run them over with a bag and empty into my yard debris so that i can fit a ton of leaves into 1 yard bin. Then i mow and mulch any remaining leaves into the yard.


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## jingobah (May 6, 2019)

I mulch a lil bit at first but then it gets to be too much. Whenever there are leaves on the lawn I'm out there either raking or blowing. I like the look of a nice clean lawn while everyone else's lawn is covered in leaves. If there's one leaf on it after I clean it, I'm out there with the blower again. I guess I'm the type of guy that sees a snowflake fall & fires up the snowblower &#128514;. The wife thinks I'm nuts, she may be right.


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2019)

jingobah said:


> I mulch a lil bit at first but then it gets to be too much. Whenever there are leaves on the lawn I'm out there either raking or blowing. I like the look of a nice clean lawn while everyone else's lawn is covered in leaves. If there's one leaf on it after I clean it, I'm out there with the blower again. I guess I'm the type of guy that sees a snowflake fall & fires up the snowblower 😂. The wife thinks I'm nuts, she may be right.


+1

I back up to a farm with a ton of trees, organic matter is great and all but it would mat down and kill off parts of the yard if I tried to mulch all the leaves.


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## mattcoughlin (Jul 8, 2018)

The trick is to keep up with it. I have found in the past if i let too many leaves build up and then mulch i have problems with it suffocating the grass, but if i'm out there on my normal spring and fall mowing schedule regardless of how much the grass has grown i don't have that issue.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Get a Gator blade! I'm probably a 90/10 guy (mulch/bag). Definitely mulch as many as you can. I used to bag all of them and put half into the vegetable garden and half in the compost pile. The year I started mulching them, I couldn't stop, and ran short of leaves for the garden. Also, not all of the leaves broke down before the winter, so some matting occurred.

Now, I mulch 2x-3x per week in the beginning of the leaf season, while the microbial action is still occurring with warmer soil temperatures. This works well in conjunction with the Fall N Blitz. You will not believe how many leaves will be digested. I leave all the beds alone until the end of the season (the contrast makes the lawn look darker green, as a bonus). Then I blow them out and mulch some/bag some for the garden. I turn huge piles of leaves to dust with the Gator blade, and side discharge at that point, to cut and recut the leaves, and distribute them across the lawn, using a Zamboni pattern. This helps to avoid stalling the engine. For the last mulch of the season, I mulch first and then throw the bag on for a clean look. Also, I'll occasionally do this if I had an extremely heavy load of leaves on the lawn. If you mulch, your earthworms will love you! Also, buy a rechargeable (usb) bicycle headlight, so you can mulch them in the dark, after work. I borrow my son's every year.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

I have zero trees on my lawn but I grab a few bags of leaves from my neighbor. I empty the leaves then mulch. In a few days they disappeared. My neighbor thinks I'm nuts but the worms love it.


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