Reasons to Consider Mulching Your Fall Leaves

As autumn makes its entrance onto your Georgia landscape, you’ll watch falling leaves begin to cover the green grass you’ve worked so hard to keep up during the last several months. While you may admire the beauty of fall colors blanketing your backyard, it’s rarely a good idea to let those leaves lie there for long. In fact, to keep your lawn healthy during the fall and winter, it is important that you either rake or mulch fallen leaves.

Don’t Leave Your Leaves

A thick coating of leaves across your lawn can essentially suffocate your grass and deprive it of the sunlight and oxygen it needs to survive. It is also common to have large clumps of wet leaves. When left to linger, these piles can create soggy areas of mud within your turf. If allowed to stay through the winter, fallen leaves can freeze and over-saturate your grass when they melt.

Your Grass Can Use Leaves

Your lawn can get some valued benefits from fallen leaves. These rich-colored leaves contain nutrients that enrich your soil when they biodegrade, such as carbon, nitrogen and other organic matter. Unfortunately, the time it takes for your leaves to naturally breakdown on their own can be too late for the benefits to outweigh the consequences on your turf. But – there is a way to get the benefits of leaves without risking lawn suffocation and other landscape setbacks.

Why Mulching is Ideal

It is common for homeowners to spend hours raking their leaves to uncover their grass. While this is certainly better than neglecting the fallen leaves altogether, there is another approach to your fall leaves. Mulching leaves is the process of chopping leaves into smaller, more easily broken down pieces. This allows your grass to use the nutrients of the leaves while still staying tidy and healthy.

Mulching is easier than you may think. Simply mow over the fallen leaves and use the side discharge on your mower to spread the leaf clipping across your turf. Breaking down the leaves makes for a neater appearance, and it also allows the leaves to biodegrade faster so that your grass can reap the nutrients.

At Everlast Lawns & Landscapes, we offer a variety of fall maintenance services, including leaf mulching for your lawn. Call today to get your quote for a one-time service or year-round maintenance.