# Fall Leaves....Equipment Approaches



## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

Last Fall I did a really good job of raking, but it was pretty much a weekly activity given our neighbors trees whose leaves blown onto my lawn.

I am keen to reduce my raking this year, so I was thinking about using my Honda HRX to mulch and bag the leaves weekly and then come along monthly and rake to pull excess thatch out from the St Aug stolons and blades.

Should I be looking to another piece of equipment instead of my mower or will this get the job done?


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

I get a lot of leaves on my yard and I just mow/bag them. I don't think you need anything else.


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## VALawnNoob (Jun 9, 2020)

The Timemaster was a saver on mulching as well as bagging leaves last year. I prefer mulch mow often to get the leaves down to tiny bits where it will feed the lawn. If you let it build up too much though I would recommend bagging the leaves until it is more manageable. Whatever you do, don't let the leaves get wet because then it becomes a harder as well as messier job


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## Rucraz2 (Apr 8, 2018)

Why don't you leave them after mulching? Your throwing away some good OM you can just leave on the lawn.


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## VALawnNoob (Jun 9, 2020)

Rucraz2 said:


> Why don't you leave them after mulching? Your throwing away some good OM you can just leave on the lawn.


It depends on the situation. There are times after strong winds or storm your lawn can be overwhelmed with leaves (sometimes wet) and if they get matted down they will suffocate the grass.


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## Rucraz2 (Apr 8, 2018)

Yes, I have had that happen. Then not having the time to get out there and take care of it before it freezes. I have mulched frozen leaves/ice chunks before haha. I don't think you can ever have too many leaves on a lawn to mulch though. My last place had two huge maples in my front yard that I literally had 2-4 ft piles covering the entire lawn. I would have to keep tilting the mower and chomp at the leaves. I never bagged any of it and it all broke down. Had to rake now and then if we had some rain and a freeze.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

There is no easier method than mulching the leaves into bits, even if than means 2-3 mows per week.


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## BurtMacklinFBI (Jul 17, 2021)

I mowed a few times a week with a push mower set up higher than normal. it mulched them up really good which also helped me fit way more into a leaf bag than I normally could. I'm a big fan of the leaf and lawn chute made to hold the bags open. I get three bags set up and just go at it till they are filled. Take a break and set up some more bags. I'm gonna use the zero turn this year with a big catcher and see how that goes. Might not be able to get em in the bag as easily as the small push mower bag but we'll see.


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## ickyoldman (Apr 26, 2021)

There is such a thing as too much mulch choking your grass if you live in a heavily wooded area......like me.


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## Rucraz2 (Apr 8, 2018)

ickyoldman said:


> There is such a thing as too much mulch choking your grass if you live in a heavily wooded area......like me.


I will respectfully disagree, as I used to think this myself.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

I'm a 100% mulch all the time person. Only time I will even consider bagging is if I'm doing a really hard scalp and trying to get to the soil. Even then I usually don't bag.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

ickyoldman said:


> There is such a thing as too much mulch choking your grass if you live in a heavily wooded area......like me.


My previous home was surrounded by acres of deciduous trees. Red and white oak, Maples, Hickory, you name it, we had everything except pine cones. I mulched everything that fell in the lawn and blew all of my leaves from the beds and around the house into the lawn to be mulched. The key was to get out and mow/mulch before they got too thick/heavy. Even if that meant mowing every other day for a couple weeks. (I was riding then, and could blow across the lawn in 30 mins or less.)


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## Thejarrod (Aug 5, 2018)

I'm a mulching fanatic, but the two mature oak trees in my front yard just put out too many big leaves. If they get too deep i use the mulching deck and a tow behind lawn sweeper at the same time. i can get a lot more in the sweeper this way. a couple passes of sweeping and now i can mulch the rest.


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## BurtMacklinFBI (Jul 17, 2021)

ickyoldman said:


> There is such a thing as too much mulch choking your grass if you live in a heavily wooded area......like me.


this is true in my neighborhood. oaks everywhere and my neibors blow theirs to the road so they can get sucked up. 99% of those leaves just blow across the street and end up in my lawn. Even if they didn't I get way too many leaves to completely mulch and the first year in this house I choked my lawn and had tons of dead spots.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

I have a South to North prevailing wind in the neighborhood that blows my neighbor's leaves onto my yard. The only think I don't have to deal with is his live oak dropping acorns. However the squirrels are constantly burying them in my yard creating hundreds of little oak sprouts. Picking up any acorns that do land in the grass has not been able to be done with my mower so far.

I'm thinking mow, mulch and bag three times and then do a hand rake the fourth time. Then repeat. We can see how that goes.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Mulch mowing is the way to go. You will be hard pressed to smother the lawn with leaf mulch. I have mulched 6+ inches of leaves into the lawn without issues. It took a couple passes, but the lawn probably loved the extra organic matter.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

Interestingly this thread for the most part has recommendations to mulch and leave from warm season stolon grass type owners and recommendations to bag from cool season grass type guys. May be something there, may not, just an interesting observation from the data so far.


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## bosox_5 (Jun 20, 2018)

Cool season lawn here. I mulch all the time. I lost the bagger in my push mower and never got one for my riding mower. I am surrounded by trees and as long as I don't let the leaves get wet and matted down I'm fine.


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## Ngilbe36 (Jul 23, 2020)

Another cool season here. I always mulch. My rear border is woods and Ive got about 12 mature deciduous trees throughout my property. Sometimes I will bag leaves from an area with more trees then re-mulch them in an area with less trees. Free carbon! Ive also bagged neighbors leaves for them and then used them in my compost. Win win.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Amoo316 said:


> Interestingly this thread for the most part has recommendations to mulch and leave from warm season stolon grass type owners and recommendations to bag from cool season grass type guys. May be something there, may not, just an interesting observation from the data so far.


My recommendations to mulch come from owning a 1 ac cool-season mix lawn in downstate NY surrounded by deciduous forest. And a little golf-course work up there as well.


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## Bean4Me (May 13, 2020)

cool season here. I've done both and believe both can work really well, its just a matter of personal preference. When I lived in a heavily wood maple and oak tree neighborhood you'd just have to keep going back and forth over the leaves until they turn into powder. If you only make one or two passes then ya you'll probably mat down the grass because the leaves aren't broken down enough. Its a dusty process but I've never had problems with my lawn. Now that I have kids running in around the yard and back into the house I prefer to bag everything year round so it doesn't get all over my kids clothing and shoes and brought back into the house.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

MasterMech said:


> My recommendations to mulch come from owning a 1 ac cool-season mix lawn in downstate NY surrounded by deciduous forest. And a little golf-course work up there as well.


Just out of curiosity since I'm casually keeping track, was KBG in the mix?


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

Honda HRX with the green knob set somewhere between mulch and half mulch/bag. That is the really nice thing about that mower is that you can half bag if the volume is just too high for 100% mulching.

Other than that, I blow them into piles, rake them onto a tarp and drag the leaves to my compost pile.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

It really depends...before when I had a lot of big oak trees, I think between me and my neighbor there's been at least 35 large trees removed. The tornado last year took out 14 alone. I would get so many leaves there would be no way to mulch. It would be a full time job using my 12 hp blower making piles and using a tarp or sheets ot carry to the woods.
Things are much easier now and I can multch no problem if I want. But to be honest I hate the look of chopped leaves on the grass so I always end the season with bagging.
I know mulching grass/leaves are beneficial to the soil but it's just so messy. This year I purchased my new ztrac mower at the time of purchase I didn't get the bagger due to availability, price and I wanted to see if I needed it. Well needless to say I ordered it, it is so messy side discharging even when I double cut and I mow twice a week for the most part. The dogs track it everywhere in the house, it stains thuer paws green lol,, and it just looks messy with the debis on the lawn, and let's not even talk about blasting the grass into the beds...ugh


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Amoo316 said:


> MasterMech said:
> 
> 
> > My recommendations to mulch come from owning a 1 ac cool-season mix lawn in downstate NY surrounded by deciduous forest. And a little golf-course work up there as well.
> ...


It was my primary actually. I overseeded pure KBG into the lawn early on. Love the stuff.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

Amoo316 said:


> Interestingly this thread for the most part has recommendations to mulch and leave from warm season stolon grass type owners and recommendations to bag from cool season grass type guys. May be something there, may not, just an interesting observation from the data so far.


@Amoo316 ...great observation!


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