Export thread

I have a neighbor who "mows" his leaves, rather than raking or blowing them off his lawn. He says he likes to leave them there because it makes his grass grow back better. He has a nice lawn, but I honestly can't tell that his grass is any better for doing that. Mine is just as nice for blowing the leaves away. But, I sometimes wonder if I am doing too much work, and should just go ahead and mow them. Does anyone else do this?

Mow them into the lawn... WAY less work and it will break down into the soil ++ +
Plus you will get that last mowing for the season, several times if your leaves fall like mine do...
:smile:KennyV

Manny, always mow mine. russ

I don't think it makes that much of a difference, like you said but I know many people who do it. I'm sure it doesn't hurt and it does save you time, but I don't think it's very good for your mower.

I've always been told that leaves are good fertiliser for the lawn but have avoided it because I assumed it would damage the mower, as someone mentioned. Is it better to wait until the leaves are dry and crisp?

abeja_reina_1989 said:

I don't think it makes that much of a difference, like you said but I know many people who do it. I'm sure it doesn't hurt and it does save you time, but I don't think it's very good for your mower.

Click to expand...

I have been mowing leaves with my pushers and tractors for 40 years. How they can damage your mower is a mystery to me. Where did you get that information? Believe me, chopping them up with a mower is one heck of a lot easier than raking.

abeja_reina_1989 said:

I don't think it's very good for your mower.

Click to expand...

Leaves could not be bad for a mower... they are thin light vegetation...
by the time they fall, they are very easy to cut up into shreds.... after a short time the remains crumble into dust... :smile:KennyV

Yep, mow them in if you like - unless you have a great deal of thatch they will just decompose and feed your lawn. :biggrin:

Nanny

I always mow my leaves with the mower when we mow the lawn in the fall it good for the soil. The only problem i could see that it would hurt your mower is if you tried to mow them if they where wet and in a big pile , that's why you mow them a few times a few at a time when they are falling so you don't mow a lot of piled wet leaves. And if there is a big pile of wet one in a corner of your yard then you might have to deal with those a different way so it doesn't hurt your mower.

Noma you beat me to it! It was the worry about wet leaves and my mower that provoked my comment. I suppose that it is obvious looking back, as I wouldn't mow wet grass! Anyhow I found this interesting article about the benefits of mowing leaves. As the writer says, we are restricted by air pollution by laws and some areas won't let you throw away too much garden waste.

Twinkle said:

Noma you beat me to it! It was the worry about wet leaves and my mower that provoked my comment. I suppose that it is obvious looking back, as I wouldn't mow wet grass! Anyhow I found this interesting article about the benefits of mowing leaves. As the writer says, we are restricted by air pollution by laws and some areas won't let you throw away too much garden waste.

Click to expand...

If I mow too large a stack of leaves at one time, wet or dry, they simply kill the engine. One of my pushers has undergone stalling that way 40 times, at least. Still runs fine.

We use leaf-collecting basket things with spinning brushes that throw the leaves into a canvas basket. One is pulled behind the mower, the other is pushed by kid-power. Our main purpose in collecting, rather than mowing, is that we have kids. They get the outdoor time, exercise and responsibility involved in collecting, plus the added fun of playing in the leaf pile when they are done. :wink: After all the playing, we spread the leaves over our garden to prepare it for the next year.

Collecting would do the trick for me. I cannot picture mowing leaves,whether wet or dry. As kids, we spent so much time collecting them and you could read from our faces that we did not really like that.

Use a 'Rotary' lawn mower as this will vacuum and cut the lawn ,removing the leaves at the same time.
Just empty the catcher before it gets Full as your leaves may make a mess.

I plug in my mulching plug and mulch them with my Gator blades. Mulches them into fine mulch food for the lawn.

Mow 'em!!!

grnspot110 said:

Mow 'em!!!

Click to expand...

Good come back!
So easy to do!:biggrin:

Wouldn't it be great to let the leaves decompose where they are? Well, it's not aesthetically sound. But from a horticulture point of view, that's a very earth-friendly way of returning to the soil what has been taken.

adan said:

Wouldn't it be great to let the leaves decompose where they are? Well, it's not aesthetically sound. But from a horticulture point of view, that's a very earth-friendly way of returning to the soil what has been taken.

Click to expand...

Leaves will ruin some varieties of lawn and cause disease.......so it be to put them into a composter as this will solve a lot of problems and your lawn looks neat and tidy.:biggrin: