Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Lawn Stuff: Don Doesn’t Rake Leaves
I don’t rake leaves. I don’t bag leaves. I mulch them. Religiously. I mow them right into the lawn.
I don’t bag my grass clippings in the spring. The summer. Or in autumn.
All these mulched grass clippings and leaves make incredible soil for my lawn.
First, raking leaves sucks. We all know it. It’s a constant battle for weeks on end. Rake on a Saturday afternoon and by Sunday evening you might wonder if you raked on Saturday, at all. Then it rains and the leaves get heavy and gross.
But ..if you mulch your leaves into the lawn, you don’t care. Dry leaves. Wet leaves. Lots of leaves. A few leaves. It doesn’t matter. It all gets mulched and decomposes all winter long right on your lawn. The snow. the rain. Just feeding your soil.
The ONLY downside is that you might find yourself mowing parts of your lawn 3 or 4 times a week. And when I say “mow”, I only mean mulching the leaves. In Michigan, where I live, by the time you get to mid-October and we’ve had a frost or two, the grass isn’t growing anymore, anyway.
Ya know what else I do? I carefully chop down every summer shrub and bush. Hostas. Purple cone flowers. Day lilies. Every perennial flower I have. With the exception of the Yuccas (which are pretty much an evergreen bush), everything must goooooo! I chop. I gather all the chopped flowers and annuals. I put them in a pile on my lawn. Then I mulch them into the lawnmower bag attachment. Pour them out. Mulch them again. Then spread that all over my flower beds like a cozy winter blanket.
It’s not like I’m an Earth-first type guy or some environmentalist. I simply believe one should use all the organic material available and mulch …compost …and give yourself amazing soil and healthy grass.
#NoRaking #NoBagging #NoBurning
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Don Kowalewski 