Although the leaves on the trees in fall look beautiful, it is a different story when they are covering your lawn and sidewalk. Unfortunately this leads to one of the last major chores of the gardening year: Raking leaves. Figuring out what to do with fallen leaves when you have raked them is also a problem.
Why You Need to Rake: Leaves are dense, dead material that will naturally decompose on your lawn over time, so you may be tempted to leave them there. The problem is that when you get an inch or so of leaves on the ground followed by the usual fall rains, the decomposition process is turned into a soggy, slimy mess that is devoid of oxygen and is the equivalent of placing a black garbage bag on the lawn. If you plan to have a flower or vegetable bed on the lawn next year, then that is fine because the grass will die. The situation is not so great for a healthy lawn. So raking and bagging the leaves is better all round. If you have a bagger for your mulching lawnmower, then use that to gather up the leaves. If you have a compost pile put the leaves, preferably mown over to chop them up, into the compost. Well-chopped leaves can also be used as light mulch on the flowerbeds or vegetable bed. Do not mulch too deeply though or you may encounter decomposition problems.
Leaves on the Flower Beds: Leaves and pine needles that fall directly onto the flowerbeds can be left alone if they are not covering the perennials directly, and if they are not too deep. Freshly decomposing material takes nitrogen from the immediate area as well as depriving the perennials from much needed sunlight. The leaves and needles can also change the pH of the ground in the upper layers of the soil, which may be problematic if your perennials are growing in well-adjusted soil. If there are too many leaves, or if the plantings require that you remove them, do so carefully so as not to uproot what is planted. You can mow over these leaves to chop them and return a portion to the flowerbed as winter mulch, using the remainder for the compost pile.
Leaves on Sidewalks: Leaves are great to walk on when they are inches thick and crunchy. Kids love to kick them around and fall into them! The downside is that when wet, the leaves become an ice rink instead, and a hazard. These are the most critical leaves to remove and it is not as difficult when they are light, dry and able to be swept as when they are wet and heavy!
Bagged Leaves: Most municipalities will collect leaves and put them into a city mulch pile. To do so you may need to provide suitable bags that are decomposable as well. The bags are available at most large hardware stores and are made of heavy recycled brown bag material. Time putting the bags onto the curb so that the bags do not get wet!
So when figuring out what to do with fallen leaves, look first to the garden, then the compost pile and finally the curbside collection from the city.
