Rake the leaves or leave the leaves?
If you are home for the holidays, you may be asking your self “should I rake the leaves or should I leave the leaves?” If you are planning to couch surf this holiday, you may want to close your ears. Jack Nicholson may have said it best in “A Few Good Men” when he said “you can’t handle the truth!”
If you have been doing things properly, you have already mulched your leaves and allowed them to become a great source of nutrients for your lawn. If you have been doing this all fall, your lawn will thank you properly this spring. A mulching mower chops up leaves and allows maximum contact of the leaf parts and pieces. These bit give your lawn air, water and nutrients over the winter and spring months. But, you didn’t do that, did you?
It’s okay.
Your holiday couch surfing just got replaced with some great exercise. This isn’t going to be easy, but you need to rake the leaves. If you don’t rake up those wet leaves now, they will smother the grass blades underneath. Wet leaves keep the soil under your grass from warming up in the spring. If the soil doesn’t warm up enough, the grass will take longer to exit dormancy.
Dormancy, what’s that?
Dormancy just means your lawn has gone to sleep. It does this in the cold winter months. You can tell a lawn is dormant when it turns brown, that because it is conserving water and nutrients. Sometimes your lawn does this in the summer when it gets too stressed from intense heat or drought. It isn’t dead, it’s dormant.
Let’s remember for next year…
Ideally, you should mulch your leaves regularly in the fall. Don’t wait until they are piled up thick and wet. Just run your mulching mower over the leaves every few days and think of it as giving your lawn a vitamin. If you don’t have a mulching mower, rake them up and compost them. You can add the decomposed leaves to your flower beds or garden later.
It doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore.
You will achieve pure joy just by watching this one minute video of a dog jumping in leaf piles. Make leaf raking a family activity, get exercise and possibly become YouTube stars all at once! Drag out the rake, gather the big trash bags and convince your family “this will be fun.” And hey, maybe asking for a mulching mower for Christmas isn’t the worst idea ever…When you are still searching for answers about lawn care and services, know that we at Lawn and Pest Solutions are always there for you. We service the Memphis, TN and North Mississippi areas with lawn treatment and pest services for lawns, homes and businesses. Our licensed technicians are available to consult with you about how we can best serve you.
