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Summary
Fall is synonymous with crisp , coolheaded air and breathtaking landscapes full of coloured leaves . Once they pass , though , you may sense a little less enthusiastic about all those multi - hued leaves . Rather than reaching foryour roue , why not take advantage of nature ’s endowment toyour lawn ?
The leafage littering your grass can profit your property and nature . larn more about the benefit of using leaf as mulch and how to use them throughout your curtilage .
6 Reasons to Use Leaves as Mulch
Fallen foliage are nature ’s way of protect your lawn , tree , and gardens from the ravages of winter . see the six chief benefits of using leaf asmulch .
1. Improve Soil and Grass
fall leave of absence meliorate soil complex body part as they slowly break down , expel phosphorus and potassium into the soil . Those same nutrient also loose the territory ’s composition , permit grass root word to tone up and grow deeper .
The leaves also help the soil ingest and retain moisture . That think of your grass will be stronger and unripe come spring .
2. Discourage Weeds
Do you have aweed trouble ? Rather than spraying mourning band with an herbicide , repress them with folio instead . Weeds ca n’t survive without air or ignitor , making a buddy-buddy covering of leaves or folio mulch an idealweed killer . And it ’s much more environmentally well-disposed than using store - grease one’s palms weedkiller .
3. Improve Water Quality
Keeping leave in your yard and out of the water better open weewee calibre . When foliage are rake , many discover their way to ditches and drainage systems , which head to lakes and rivers . An excessive number of decaying folio in lake can make unhealthful algae increment , which , in turn , touch water tone .
4. Natural Fertilizer
Tree roots absorb up plant nutrient from the soil beginning in the spring . By autumn , the leaf have everything they require to play asa fertilizerfor your lawn and garden . Even better , leaves contain more essential nutrients than a dish of semisynthetic fertilizer does .
Rich in carbon , calcium , magnesium , nitrogen , atomic number 15 , and atomic number 19 , leaf mulch is an organic powerhouse that rivals or surpasses what you could bribe at the store . While celluloid fertilizer are in high spirits in nitrogen , they ca n’t vie with the C depicted object in leaf mulch .
plant life utilize carbon copy in higher amount than they utilise nitrogen . Grass and plants receive atomic number 6 dioxide from the air but will also suck it up from the soil when it ’s there . Layering your lawn with leaf mulch gives the soil an extra shot of carbon paper , make it a rich , nutrient - dense alkali for your grass .
5. Protect Trees
When deciduous tree like maple , birch , and willow drop their leaves in the fall , it ’s an act of ego - preservation . Treesnaturally mulchtheir own antecedent system to isolate them from frost , ice , and snow . When the leaves are leave to blanket the area besiege trees , the roots are less susceptible to damage from freeze and defrosting .
While a thin coating of parting is fine , layers of whole leaf several inches thick can harm the eatage and plants surrounding them . When the foliage cover is too dense , it will seal in more wet than necessary , which could cause fungus to grow .
6. Home to Wildlife
Dead leaves may await like an eyesore to you , but tobutterflies , they just look like place . dry leaves provide butterfly larvae , moth , and worms shelter from winter cold .
folio are an all important habitat for bumblebee queens . The only survivors of their settlement each year , they necessitate a thick level to protect them from the snow and trash over the wintertime . As a big pollinator , bee ' survival has a significant upshot on the ecosystem as a whole .
folio litter is also a resort for wanderer , snails , and other invertebrates , making it a premier hunting undercoat for birds , salamander , and frog .
How to Mulch Leaves
If you do n’t like the look of leaves on your lawn or take to abide by with your householder ’s association rules , learning how to mulch leave will give you the look of a clean lawn while still retaining all the benefit leaf have to propose the grass and soil .
Mulching involve chopping juiceless leaves into pocket-size pieces . The key to an excellent leaf mulch is to rip up the leaves with your lawn lawn mower shortly after they fall . If you ’re using a received lawn mower and your lawn has a thick leaf cover , you may need to make several pass . You know you have it right when the mulched leaves immix in with your grass .
What to Do With Excess Mulch
If you have a lot of deciduous Tree on your property , you in all likelihood have more leaves than you require . What can you do with the supererogatory , inadequate of filling bags and broadcast them to the landfill ?
Rather than languish your bountifulness of leave , you could :
1. Cover Your Gardens
If you have too much mulch for your lawn , you could skim the inordinateness into your gardens , and do n’t be afraid to stack it on . Your gardens can take mulch 3- to 4 - column inch deep . you may also rake extra mulch onto tree theme or use it to make a nourishing - rich compost .
2. Create Compost
Creating compost is as childlike as collecting fall leaves or fresh leaf mulch and combining it with sprig , grass clippings , and veggie and fruit food waste . Keep the mixture moist and merge it well whenever you tot up to it . Compost does n’t smell or depend good , but your garden will love it come spring .
3. Make Leaf Mold Fertilizer
If compost sound like too much oeuvre , why not create leaf stamp instead ? crease sliced or unshredded leaves into a sight and keep them moist . Within a few years , the leave will have fall apart down into a drear compost - like substance full of Ca and magnesium . Add it to gardens , potted plants , or container garden for an extra rise of nutrients .
4. Insulate Vegetables
leave of absence are n’t just bang-up for insulating Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree roots ; they could be your occult arm for protect your base vegetables if you plan to do wintertime gardening . expend a generous natural covering of leaves or leaf mulch over veggies , such as beet , Daucus carota sativa , and parsnip , and dig them up as need .
If you plan to store root vegetable in the cellar or another cool post , you could use impudently descend leaves misted with water to level between the veggies .
Rethinking Leaf Mulch
fall parting do n’t have to be a nuisance . If you ’re blessed with many fallen leaves , look at it nature ’s style of reinvesting in your prop . By creating and using leaf mulch , your lawn and gardens are certain to be the envy of all your neighbors .
