Fall cleanup in Calgary - Should you rake or mulch your leaves?

You love the fall colours but hate cleaning up all those dead leaves in your yard.  Raking can be back-breaking and mulching seems so easy; yet some say it will damage your grass.  What is a home owner to do?

What the experts say

Fall leaves according to Scott’s Canada, a leading lawn care and fertilizer manufacturer, should be mulched.  It’s easier and the clean up can be done in an afternoon or less.  Apart from the labour involved, organic material has nutrients and by breaking down the leaves you’ll release those nutrients back onto the grass. Studies have been done at Purdue, Cornell and Michigan State Universities in this regard. Mulched leaves left over the winter didn’t damage the grass in any way or negatively impact the pH of the soil.  Diseases did not seem more likely to appear and leaf mulch may also reduce the growth of dandelions in the spring.

How to mulch leaves

Remove the grass catcher on your lawn mower and run it over the leaves on the grass.  A mulching blade isn’t necessary for this even though you will get better results more quickly. The leaves should be dry and the layer of leaves less than six inches thick. Once you have passed over several times, the leaves should be no bigger than a dime.  When you’re finished there should be about half an inch of grass poking through the mulched layer.

Promote mulch breakdown

If you’re concerned that the mulch may sit and rot your grass, you can speed up the decomposition period by adding fall fertilizer to your lawn to help the microbes work faster.

Mulching will also keep organic materials out of the landfill, unless your municipality composts organic yard waste (the City of Calgary follows this practise).

Rake if you must

Even if organic yard waste can be composted, disposing of your leaves still costs money.  If you take your bagged leaves to a leaf drop off, a truck must still come by and pick then up.

Burning leaves is not an option within many urban areas.

Landscapers that know their customer yards well, who perhaps have been leaving grass clippings all summer, prefer to haul away leaves knowing that a particular lawn can’t absorb any more compost material.  Especially if the yard or adjacent properties are heavily treed with excessive leaf canopy.

With fewer trees and different varieties of tree dropping leaves at different rates, mulching may work in specific instances.

If the trees on your property harboured insects or where diseased then leaf removal is preferred to eradicate possible insect eggs on the ground.

If raking leaves is physically difficult, you may prefer to rent or purchase a leaf blower and blow leaves onto the driveway to be swept into piles and more easily bagged.

Of course, you can keep your grass catcher on your lawn mower, although you will be emptying it quite frequently.  You will want to raise the blade of your lawnmower as well.