Why Raking up All Dead Leaves is not a Good

What's so bad about raking up all your leaves?

Raking up all the leaves in your yard and neighbourhood can do a lot of harm to the environment. When you rake leaves, you are destroying all the decomposing organic matter that nature has created so that it can make rich soil for future plants. If the leaves aren’t composted or put into a leaf shredder, they pile up and form compost that doesn’t get enough oxygen to break down properly. The leaves will just sit in a pile and not do anything good for the soil, or your lawn! When we rake up leaves and pile them in a heap somewhere, we’re destroying all that good compost material that Mother Nature put so much effort into creating! Instead, by simply leaving those leaves where they are and mulching them with other plants or wood chips, you can create a haven for soil-dwelling organisms and get a jump start on your garden soil next spring.

What Can You Do Instead of Raking?

Instead of raking up all your leaves, consider the following: - Leave Some Leaves on the Ground , you can’t leave all your leaves on the ground, but leaving a few here and there will help your yard and garden just as much as if you had gathered them up and piled them somewhere. Use Your Blower to Create Leaf Mulch, if you use a blower to clear leaves from your yard, try blowing them back into your garden beds. That will help keep the soil moist and prevent weeds from growing. If you like the look of leaf mulch in your garden beds, try to rake them up yourself. You don’t want to use a blower to get them into the beds, because you want to be able to control where they go. If you don’t have the time to gather up your leaves or if you have a lot of leaves that you just don’t have time to mulch, you can always use leaf compost. This is a way to quickly decompose the leaves and put them to good use. If you don’t want to use your leaves as mulch, you can always use wood chips. This is especially good if you have lots of deciduous trees on your property. If you don’t have time to mulch all your leaves, that’s okay. If you leave them on the ground all winter, they will decompose a lot faster in spring, when you will be ready to use them.

How to Tell When Leaves Are Ready to Be Mounded

You should mound your leaves when they have turned mostly brown. If you wait to mulch until most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and are brown, you will have a much better product. There are a few different ways to tell if the leaves are ready to be mulched. You can stomp on a few to see if they “squish” like they’re wet. You can tear off a branch and see if the leaves are dry and crumbly. You can smell the leaves to see if they have a musty smell. You can touch the leaves to see if they are dry.

How to Build Leaf Dumps Instead of Raking Up Leaves

If you live in an area that gets a lot of leaves and you don’t want to spend your whole fall collecting them and mulching them, you can build a leaf dump. This is a place where you can dump all the leaves in your yard and let them decompose over the winter. To build a leaf dump, you will need to create a barrier. If you have a fence in your yard that is at least five feet tall, you can use that as a barrier. If not, you can place a large tarp or plastic sheeting over a few boards to create a barrier. Once you have your barrier in place, you want to pile your leaves up against the barrier. While they’re in the pile, they will decompose and help the soil.

Bottom line

Raking up all your leaves is bad gardening practice. Instead of clearing all the leaves, consider the following: Leave Some Leaves on the Ground, Use Your Blower to Create Leaf Mulch, Create Leaf Mulch Beds, Use Leaf Compost, or Use Wood Chips as Mulch. You can also build a leaf dump where you can pile your leaves and let them decompose over the winter.