Photo by peasap via flickr

As the outdoor season winds to an end (at least for us in the Northern states!), days get shorter and trees turn beautiful colors.  And then they drop all those beautiful leaves right onto the lawn, leaving a raking chore to last for several weeks to come.  What should you do with all those leaves?

In most areas, it’s illegal to rake the leaves into the street.  Instead, you’ll need to bag them to be picked up with the yard waste, if your city provides that service.  In some areas, you may be able to burn them.  However, the best option is mulching.

One of the easiest ways to mulch is with a good mulching lawn mower.  If you leave the bag off, you can create a nice mulch over your yard.  Scott’s even has a product for fall lawn care that we’re going to try this year – you create the leaf mulch then spread the Turf Builder over top.  It’s supposed to help the roots grow stronger, which will give you a thicker greener lawn in the spring.  I’ll have to let you know next year if it works!

If you have too many leaves to leave all of them on your lawn, try mulching them and then adding them to your compost container.  If you’re not doing compost, but you have wood mulch in your garden, try adding a layer of leaf mulch underneath.  This will decompose over the winter, adding valuable nutrients to your plants for next year.

Whatever you decide to do with your leaves this year, make sure you enjoy the last bit of being outside for the season!