If you have trees on your New England property, then you might spend a lot of your weekends raking leaves in the fall. While we know this can be a hassle that most people don’t feel like doing, it’s a pretty critical task.
Leaves on the grass are more than just an eyesore, they can do actual harm to your lawn’s health. When you fail to rake your leaves, you could wind up with some serious problems with your turf. If you’ve put a lot of work into promoting a healthy lawn all spring and summer, it doesn’t make sense to give up now.
In this article, we’ll dive into why leaf cleanup is so important when preparing your lawn for fall.
Jump to:
What Happens if You Don’t Rake Leaves?
When to Rake Leaves?
Bagging or Mulching Leaves Into Lawn
Choosing Lawn Care in Southern NH, Northeastern Massachusetts, and Southern Maine
What Happens if You Don’t Rake Leaves?
Leaves on the lawn are an eyesore. But beyond aesthetics, there are other issues that can occur if you fail to rake your leaves. Let’s talk about some of these.
Fungus Growth
When leaves are left lying on the grass, moisture can become trapped, creating optimal conditions for lawn fungus to grow. Brown Patch and Snow Mold are two common lawn diseases that are more likely to occur due to leaf coverage.
Pests Take Up Residence
Another problem with un-raked leaves is that they can become a habitat for unwanted pests. Lawn pests and even rodents don’t want to be out in the open and are often in search of cover. Fallen leaves can make your lawn an appealing place to hang out.
Grass Suffocation and Blocked Photosynthesis
Leaves on the lawn can also reduce the circulation of oxygen and block the lawn from receiving sunlight. Since the sun is needed for the photosynthesis process to occur, this can be harmful to the lawn’s health.
Diminished Impact of Lawn Care Products
Leaves on the grass can also block lawn care products from reaching the soil level. If you’re going to have your lawn aerated and overseeded in the fall, un-raked leaves can get in the way. Leaves already on the ground prior to aeration and overseeding can block seeds from falling into the holes. Leaves that fall after overseeding (and are not raked), can block new seedlings from receiving access to sunlight and water.
When to Rake Leaves?
The best practice for leaf clean-up is to rake every few days after leaf drop.
Leaves fall periodically from trees throughout the fall season and if you keep up with it every few days, it becomes a much less time-consuming and back-breaking task. We know that raking leaves in the fall can be a major chore.
Keeping leaves periodically cleaned up also helps prevent some of the problems that we’ve discussed above. It really doesn’t take long to accumulate too many leaves on the lawn.
Of course, we know that life gets busy. Trying to keep up with regular raking simply might not happen. As with any lawn care task you handle yourself, make your best effort to perform it as often as possible. You might even consider paying one of your children (or a neighborhood kid) to do it for you!
Bagging or Mulching Leaves Into Lawn
There are two approaches to leaf clean up. You can bag leaves and get rid of them. Or, you can mulch leaves into the lawn.
While we know that people do like a really clean look of no leaves, mulching leaves into the lawn does provide some natural fertilizer as the clippings decompose.
It’s important that you mulch the leaves into small pieces so that they can easily break down into the soil. As they do, they will add nutrients back into the lawn.
In addition, if mulching leaves behind clumps, it’s important to use a leaf blower to spread these clumps out otherwise they can have the same negative impact as failing to rake.
Choosing Lawn Care in Southern NH, Northeastern Massachusetts, and Southern Maine
At Seacoast Turf Care, we want to see homeowners get the best possible lawn care results. While we perform important fall lawn services like fertilization, weed control, and lawn aeration, we hate to see lawns struggle because homeowners didn’t keep up with raking.
While we certainly understand that nobody enjoys this task, it really is a critical way to prepare your lawn for the fall (and beyond).
The best lawns are typically those in which the lawn care provider and the homeowner have a strong partnership. That’s why we’re always here to offer recommendations and advice. We want to see you get the most out of your lawn care services and be happy with a lawn that you truly love.
Want to learn more about what makes us a great choice for your lawn care needs? At Seacoast Turf Care, we service NH towns near Stratham, North Hampton, Exeter and many more. Get lawn care pricing for your Southern NH, Southern Maine, or Northeastern Massachusetts property.
Image Sources: brown patch lawn disease, leaf pile, rake and leaves, bagged leaves
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