Local Expert: Falling Leaves Can Provide Nutrients To Lawn And Garden

Fall leaves beginning to hit the ground. Can you use those leaves to better your landscape?

Regional Forester Jeff Thompson said utilizing falling leaves for lawn food is common practice. Thompson said he recommends residents cut apart fallen leaves to spread over their lawns evenly. Thompson said that this allows the ground to soak up all of the natural nutrition that is in the leaves.

“Probably the best way for a garden or lawn would be to shred them with a mower,” Thompson said. “That’d probably be the best way to do it. Because if a person just leaves them on the lawn they’re gonna smother it and they’ll get mold on them and it wouldn’t do too good.”

Thompson said mold on a lawn can eventually kill the lawn. Thompson said that shredded leaves allow for more air, moisture, and light to get through into the grass.

“Leaves are kind of like pieces of paper if you just laid them down over your lawn,” Thompson said. “But if you shred them then there’d be openings out there. They would reach some of that potassium and phosphorus into the soil.”

Thompson said he also recommends raking the leaves into corners of the lawn in order to prevent smothering.

“I rake some of my leaves to the side of the yard just to get them off the yard and then provide habitat for wildlife and then just some nutrients for the woods that are around the lawn,” Thompson said.

Thompson said that he recommends raking to a far corner of the lawn to ensure that wildlife stays away from any children or passers-by. Thompson said burning leaves is common practice, only he recommends gently sprinkling the ashes into the lawn or garden after.