Mulching leaves into lawn...?

[Doug Kanter]

We don't apply herbicides. They can't be tested for safety according to good scientific practices.

[Patrick]

Back then... just talking the bigs one, Buicks had 455s, Olds and Pontiac has 455s as well, Chevys had 454s, AMC 401s, Dodges had 440s and Fords had 427s, 428s and 429s.

Patrick (also an auto enthusiast)

[dr-solo]

interesting... did I read it on here that earthworms arent native to the US? and that the earthworm activity in forests is overworking the soil in forests leading to lower fertility. Ingrid

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[Stephen M. Henning]

Are you saying that boiling water isn't safe??? It is one of the oldest herbicides known to mankind. Others include the absence of light and fire, both of which have been used for centuries. It is possible to kill plants safely even if you are afraid of more complex chemicals.

[Jay Chan]

Glad to hear that mulching all the leaves works for you.

But this doesn't work for me. Mulching alone just cannot take care of the large amount of leaves on my lawn. When I tried that, I ended up getting a layer of yellow or red shredded leaves on my lawn. The large amount of yellow/red shredded leaves could not blend in with the green lawn. This creates a very messy look. And I am not cutting the grass short either. I cut them at the recommended height for my Kentucky Bluegrass -- 3". Good thing I can use the shredded leaves in my compost piles; therefore, the only difference between mulching the leaves and shredding-bagging-and-composting the leaves is the number of trips to my compost piles. This is really no big deal for me. I can live with this rather than leaving the lawn in a very messy look.

When I am mowing the lawn, I almost always mulch the grass. The shredded green leaves blend in perfectly with the green lawn. But I will not do this with leaves, especially a large amount of leaves.

I think this depends on whether someone can live with the messy look, and whether the extra trips to the compost pipes is too much a trouble for that person, and whether that person has a compost pile at all. If that person doesn't have a compost pile, and if he can live with the messy look, I guess he will be better off mulching the leaves to add the organic matters back to the lawn.

Jay Chan

[FACE]

I think it has to do with the *amount* of the leaves.

A lot of people think that a single layer is a fall's worth and they are unfamiliar with leaves several inches deep in late november. (I wish I was unfamiliar with that)

FACE

[Jay Chan]

Exactly.

The other possible factor may have to do with the kind of grass that the lawn has. If the lawn has warm season grass, the grass probably turn brown or yellow when the weather gets cold in cold region. In this case, someone probably can let shredded leaves on the lawn and let them decompose. The color of the shredded leaves probably blend in well with the color of the dormant grass. Actually, I don't know if this is true or not because I have never seen this in practice. Anyway, I have cold season grass on my lawn that stays green in fall and winter. Shredded yellow/brown leaves simply cannot blend in well with green grass.

Jay Chan

[Stephen M. Henning]

Our cold season grass (rye, fescue, blue grass) stays green in spring and fall, but turns brown in the winter when the ground freezes solid and there is snow on the ground. The only thing green then is the dandelions and plantain and, by spring, the dead nettle is coming strong.

[Jay Chan]

This is not my experience. The bluegrass in my lawn stay green through out the winter. The differences in our experiences may be caused by:

1. I am in zone-6. May be you are in much colder region.
2. May be our definition of "green" is different. For me, "off-green" is still green.

One more thing is that I am under the impression that "rye" is not as cold tolerate as other cold season grass. If you have plenty of rye in your lawn, they "may" die and turn brown in very cold weather. Honestly, I am not exactly sure about this because I don't intentionally seed rye in my lawn, and have very little experience with rye.

Anyway, if your lawn turned brown in winter, the shredded brown leaves probably can blend well on the lawn. And I can understand why you have no problem leaving shredded leaves on the lawn.

Have a good weekend!

Jay Chan