I'm going to ask a really dumb question. Why do people rake up leaves? Why don't they just leave them where they are to rot away over the winter and spring? Is it just a neatness thing or is there a better reason?
Raking Up Leaves
Some leaves dont rot. Like OAK leaves. So if you have oak leave chances are you have acorns, which grass wont grow through. I hate the darn things. Then a lot of people up in NE have pine trees and they dont rot either.
I am sure there are other reasons. If I was to guess it would be scratch the dirt.
Punishment - remember the Pilgrims settled New England and they weren't exactly "party people". LOL
FYI - I have a leaf vacuum that shreds the leaves as it picks them up.
If you don't rake the leaves your grass will get a mold & die.....
We mulch it first then I use it in the gardens, Robin is correct if you leave it whole the grass dies underneath
Same answer here. They make good compost but will kill grass if left in larege areas.
We are lucky here in that most all the landscaping was done with evergreens.
Not wanting to kill the grass is a good reason. Thanks. (In case you were wondering, we have one tree that sheds onto the grass, but it has tiny leaflets that decompose right away.)
We have lots of oak leaves, but they are still green and up there on the trees. the norway maples had something that blackened the leaves and they are starting to fall. my son has two leaf blowers. We compost some of the oak leaves by running the mower over the pile to crunch them up or they would never rot. He bags the rest and takes them down to the town compost pile. Oak leaves will kill the grass. pine needles I use as mulch for my rhododendrons and azaleas.
Martha
I live in Baltimore.....
The two trees I have are Maples. They both drop leaves at different times....so I have to rake 4 tomes....
I have a Toro Leaf vacuum/shredder. I rake my leaves into piles and then suck them up with my shredder vac.
They are pretty well smithereened by then...
Then I empty my shredder bag into a black 33 gallon Trash Bag. It takes two full shredder bags to fill the trash bag.
As I fill it--I hose a little bit of water in it and a couple hand-fulls of an organic Lawn Food (like Espoma) for some Nitrogen.
I close the bag up and let it be for 2 years. By then, it is a wonderful. composted, organic amendment to anything in your garden.
You can dig it into your beds or use it as a top mulch. I prefer digging it in.
Oak leaves are high in acid. Hope you will take that into account where, and how, you use it.
Gita
Raking in Texas too. We rake to keep them away from the house in case of fire. Still in extreme fire danger here.
And, we get to rake in fall and springtime because some of the oaks here don't shed their dead leaves till spring when the new leaves bud out. Oh joy!
The upside is the leaves do make for excellent compost and the price is right. It only costs excercise.
So Kelli in California, what do you get to do with all that spare time? lol
She has to mow her yard ALL YEAR! Hahahaha! (Native Californian here - transplanted to the state of only mow 5 months a year!)
LOL and that was the best part of this summers' drought. We certainly didn't worry about mowing.
ugh to all year with weeds!
An important reason was left out. When you live in the burbs, you have neighbors. If you choose not to rake, your leaves will certainly end up on your neighbor's property, and if he does rake, he will not be a happy neighbor.
So right Victor...I end up with oak leaves in my yard every year from somewhere...no oaks trees adjecent to my property
Weeds growing year round would be the pits!
My neighbor's acorns were covering my drive last year....however, he works 5 full days & 2 half days & his wife has health problems....I couldn't say anything, I just kept sweeping. This year, those oaks have no acorns, thank God!