Will unraked leaves damage the lawn you slaved over last summer? Just askin’
To rake or not to rake is a question that arises every fall when the leaves begin to fall and this season is no different. Mike Hogan, extension educator for agriculture and natural resources at Ohio State University, spoke.
Question: A neighbor of mine suggested that in our neighborhood we should leave fallen leaves on the ground over the winter because they will rot and fertilize the lawn and also provide shelter for insects and wildlife over the winter. Will this damage the lawn?
Answer: Some leaves left on certain parts of the lawn will be useful as a place for beneficial insects and small wildlife to overwinter. This works best when you have a small number of smaller trees that don’t shed enough leaves to cover the entire lawn.
The problem is that thick mats of dead leaves can choke out cool-season grasses that continue to grow into fall, and sometimes into winter, depending on the weather.
A thick layer of leaves can also cause snow mold, a fungal disease that creates patches of dead, matted grass, usually appearing as circular gray or white areas after the snow melts.
Instead of leaving a carpet of dead leaves on the lawn, it is best to run the lawn mower over the leaves several times so that the leaves are reduced into small particles that will settle into the grass stand, almost like mulch between the blades of grass. As these leaf particles decompose, they add a small amount of nutrients to the soil and are a good source of organic matter.
If you also want to provide winter cover for beneficial insects, you can pile fallen leaves on flower and shrub beds or in the vegetable garden for the winter and remove or till these leaves into the garden soil in spring after the insects emerge. Or you can let the dead leaves stay on a small part of the lawn, perhaps in a far corner of the yard, thereby sacrificing a small area of turf that could be killed over the winter.
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This article originally appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer: Can I Just Ignore the Leaves on My Lawn? I’m just asking
