Mowing Leaves

I did my first mowing of the leaves back in October and will finish it this month. The oak was the first to drop enough leaves to mow…then the sycamore…then the maple. Overall, I mowed about 4 times over a 4-6 week period. This was the first year I attempted the leaf mowing strategy (rather that raking and carrying them back into the forest behind our house)…and I will probably choose mowing again next fall. It enables the leaves to decompose quickly at the base of the trees rather than somewhere else. And I tend to not contort myself in odd ways when I mow rather than rake/carry.

I did a before and after picture of the next to the last mowing. The red maple (to the right in the pictures) had dropped about half its leaves. I did not mow the leaves that fell on bare dirt (the shade is so dense that not much grows directly under the tree. Mowing the leaves uncovered some grass that was still green!

Some lessons learned this season:

The sycamore leaves tend to blow under the deck and need to be raked out into the yard so that they can be easily mowed. The trick is to remember to do that little bit of raking before starting the mower.

Mowing the sycamore leaves chops them up enough that they start decomposing rather than maintaining their size and shape well into the winter.

The leaves and other tree debris (acorns and small sticks) from the street gutter are more easily swept onto the yard to be mowed than vacuumed up and carried back to the compost (I am enthusiastic about avoiding carrying leaves).

Still TBD: Will we need less (or no) fertilizer for the yard since the leaves have been mulched into the grass? Maybe.