photo by Stonewood, LLC.

  Can you mulch your leaves into the lawn this fall using your lawn mower?   Will it cause too much thatch? Well, it depends. Leaving layers of leaves on the lawn can cause disease and other issues in the lawn. Click here to see what Dr. Wayne Wells at Mississippi State University says about this topic. Putting leaves in a compost bin makes good sense and a great way to have organic matter to plant in.  If you have tons of fallen leaves you can use them under existing stands of trees or wooded areas.  Another simple way to manage the fallen leaves is to continue mowing the lawn through the fall season to shred up leaves into the lawn.  Here is a little trick you might try.  Blow leaves to the driveway and mulch them up with the mower on the driveway.  Then blow the very small bits of shredded leaves into the shrub beds. There are a few things you need to know before you start. 1. Leaves can be mulched up using your lawn mower.  You may benefit from using a special blade on your mower called a mulching blade, but it is not necessary.  I have been mulching my leaves in the front yard with just a normal blade. Once you have chopped up these leaves, you can easily move them to a compost bin or even use a blower to scatter the shredded leaves around.  Don’t leave piles of shredded leaves around the yard.  Keep mowing until they are small. 2.  Expect to ride over the leaves with the mower blade engaged 4 or 5 times to really get the leaves shredded nice and fine. 3. Mulching leaves on a dry day works best.  Wet matted leaves don’t mulch well, so don’t get behind on leaf mulching.  With 4 boys in my house, I usually can find one who has a free 30 minutes to mulch the leaves every Saturday. 4. Finally, Dr. Wells at MSU reminds us to be careful with leaves from black walnut and magnolia trees.  “Black walnut and magnolia, I am convinced, have detrimental effects and I would not mulch these species into a lawn in large quantities. Oaks and maples do not seem to provide any bad effects if done in moderate amounts and well mulched.” Great advice. Enjoy this great fall weather. I look forward to seeing you planting to grow. Jeff P.S. I am developing my Green Thumb course for this spring and would like your input on what you want to learn.  Take a moment and leave a comment to let me know what subjects interest you.