Fallen maple leaves (Courtesy of Harvey Cotten)
Dear Harvey,
As we are "showered" with the falling leaves (mostly from oak trees), I am facing the question of how to dispose of them. Because of age, I have a contractor mowing service to do these tasks and he mows over them and mulches them and disperses the end product in the yard. Is this mulch harmful to the grass to stay there for the winter season, or do you think bagging the leaves up is an absolute must ? With many thanks, George J.
Dear George,
As I was walking out in the Garden this morning I was looking at several showers of leaves falling to the ground – what a wonderful time of the year to enjoy. Your question is a great one for we do have several choices to make in how we handle the falling leaves each year. Since the City suspended leaf pick-up a few years ago it has made the task a bit more difficult for homeowners while also offering a great opportunity to implement some excellent sustainable gardening practices.
First, I will say that if you must rake your leaves up then you have to bag them and place them by the curb for pick-up. These leaves will then be carted off to the landfill and buried underground where they will slowly (and I mean very slowly) decompose over time. This really does no one any good and should be the last choice made by gardeners.
If we are not going to bag them then what else can we do with our leaves that makes good sense. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (www.aces.edu) has an excellent publication ANR-692 Recycling Leaves that offers several options to homeowners. The two most common practices are to mulch them or to compost them and I believe both options are great choices.
Mulching the leaves is one of the easiest options to employ. Our lawnmowers are our best friends here, especially ones outfitted as mulching mowers since they will chop the leaves up into very fine particles. The smaller the pieces the faster the leaves will decompose thus providing organic matter and nutrients to our lawns or landscape beds. Having your lawn care company mulch the leaves and keep them on the lawn is an acceptable practice especially if they do a thorough job in cutting up the leaves. I am an advocate of grass-cycling (mulching the grass blades and returning them to the soil) and mulching the leaves is another excellent way to help build up the soil. I especially like to aerate the lawn first and then mulch the leaves thus allowing them to get down into the soil and do their magic. Often one has to get the blower out to move the leaves that have fallen into the beds out into the grassy areas so the mower can mulch them up too.
The other way I like to handle the leaves is to compost them. If there was one task that every gardener should do to improve their success it would be composting. Compost has been called ‘Black Gold’ and is truly a gardener’s best friend. It is an excellent mulch, soil amendment and fertilizer while also helping to control diseases in the landscape. Compost is created by combining different materials together and allowing decomposition to take place transforming these raw materials into humus, a very valuable resource. Leaves are one of the most abundant raw materials that we can use to make compost and it is prudent to take advantage of this product. I still like to mulch the leaves up before I put them in the compost pile for they will break down quicker but it is not absolutely necessary to do so. Utilizing a blower with a vacuum attachment works well also for it has the ability to reduce the volume of material into more manageable piles. Once you start composting and using this great product in your garden you will be cruising the neighborhood looking for other people’s leaves to use in your compost piles.
Mowing your leaves is a great way to handle the ‘showers’ that are coming down but don’t overlook the value of composting those leaves as well.
• You should prune only to remove wayward branches and dead or damaged wood – you do not want to stimulate new growth at this time
• Save seeds of favorite perennials like coneflower and black-eyed Susan – then cut back the flower stalks to the crown.
• Fertilize new pansy plantings every two weeks with a liquid fertilizer solution – this will keep them growing right up until cold weather comes
I look forward to answering all of your gardening questions. Please send your inquiries via email to hcotten@hsvbg.org. For those of you who prefer regular mail, please send to Harvey Cotten c/o The Huntsville Botanical Garden, 4747 Bob Wallace Ave; Huntsville, AL 35805.