Why You Should Clean Up Dead Leaves

There are certain things we don’t enjoy doing but know we have to do them, whether it’s keeping on top of your bills or going to the doctors for a check-up.

Clearing the dead leaves on your lawn may well be something that falls into this category for you, especially since, during fall and winter, it seems no sooner have you cleared the leaves that a whole new batch falls, making it seem a never ending battle.

We at Grasshopper Lawns consider ourselves lawn care experts, so we know that if you want to have the best looking lawn you possibly can, you need to make sure you clean up dead leaves, no matter how frustrating it may be.

Here are our top reasons why:

Your lawn needs to breathe

Your lawn has to breathe, and needs sunlight and water. If fallen leaves are left covering your lawn it blocks its access to air and light, and if left for too long can result in dead and dried patches spreading.

Fallen leaves can cause damage

If you don’t clean up your leaves regularly, they can blow away and end up clogging your drains, and cause a backup of water, flooding areas around your home.

This can lead to you having to fork out for costly repairs, which is a lot more hassle than raking the leaves off your lawn.

You’re preparing your home for spring

Clearing the lawn allows nutrients to reach all throughout your soil, strengthening your roots. Additionally, if too heavy a layer of dead leaves builds up on your lawn, it can prevent new grass blades from growing once spring arrives.

It makes you a nice neighbor

We all want to be good neighbors, and want our neighbors to be good to us as well. Cleaning up the dead leaves in your lawn keeps it looking nice, preventing your home from becoming an unsightly blight on your neighborhood.

Additionally, clearing your dead leaves stops them from blowing across into your neighbor’s yards, something which can become very annoying if it happens time and time again during fall and winter.

You can reuse them

Another great reason you should be clearing up dead leaves is that you can re-use them to help, rather than hurt, your lawn.

You can shred the fallen leaves you’ve collected and add them to your compost pile.  Just take sure the leaves make up no more than 2/3 of your compost pile, as any more will make your compost pile too cold, preventing it from decomposing.

If you don’t want to go the time consuming route of adding dead leaves to your compost pile, instead store your leaves in an area of your garden. Water this pile of leaves periodically to prevent it from drying out and eventually, the leaves will turn into leaf mold, or humus. This leaf mold is an excellent soil conditioner and you can restock your supply every year when the leaves start falling again.