How many mulched leaves can a lawn take?

[l008com]

This question is a little out of season, but its on my mind often.

I'm wondering how many leaves I can mulch (with my lawn mower) into my lawn before it may cause a problem and I should rake instead?

Of course I'd prefer to use my lawnmower for 100% of the leaves and rake nothing. But that's not really an option. I have been told that mulched leaves are good for the lawn, they add nutrients. But there are a lot of oak trees and maples trees in my neighborhood. Sometimes I have a coating of leaves, sometimes I have a blanket. Sometimes its not too heavy, but I'll get that same coating 4 weeks in a row. So it may not seem too bad, but when I keep adding more and more each week, I wonder how much it can take.

Here are some samples:

Please ignore the mug
These are large, thick oak tree leaves. But even so, it's a pretty thin coating. This amount of leaves, I'll usually just mulch with the mower and not give it much thought.


This amount of leaves, as you can see in the pic I'm bagging. It seems like it's not *THAT* much to mulch. However they drop this amount of leaves every week, so every week I was blanketing the ground with mulched up leaf like this.



And then theres the front. That's where all the 100+ year old oak trees are. The front just gets blanketed. It looks like I'm mulching in this clip but I'm actually using the shoot and doing loops, blowing it into a more narrow strip that I can suck up with the yard vacuum. But using the lawn mower in mulching mode is always the easiest and most fun way to do it. I can't imagine the lawn can take THIS amount of mulched up leaves? But can it? How do you judge how much is too much?



Once the mower mulches up the leaves, they are pretty small pieces. So maybe theres no limit to how much I can mulch that way? Maybe they won't smother the lawn at all so it doesn't matter, and I don't actually have to do any leaf pickup at all, except for on the driveway and street?

Here's another sample pic. I'm bagging here not only because of the amount of leaves, but because the trees over here drop the same amount for four weeks or so straight, and I'm concerned about the total quantity having a negative affect on the lawn.


We have curbside yardwaste pickup in my town, but it's not weekly. Its generally monthly, but sometimes in the falls its every two weeks. But sometimes its every 6 weeks. It's a really weird schedule. And not relying on it at all would be my preference.

 

[pepper]

My front yard doesn't have any trees only a few bushes. But my backyard is like a forest. In the fall there is a thick blanket of leaves covering every inch. I have to mulch with the lawnmower every couple days or so while they are falling or it wouldn't be able to get through them. Only time I rake a bit is to collect some for compost piles in the garden, I use one of those shredders that sucks them up into a bag. Other then that the lawn is completely covered with leaves. In the spring usually by the second or third lawn cut they are completely gone out of the lawn. I don't do it to take care of my lawn I do it because I hate raking leaves lol. But it doesn't hurt the lawn any, infact I seem to have to cut mine twice as often as any of my neighbors do.

 

[l008com]

Hmm interesting.
My front is small and the coating of oak tree leaves is thick. So I'll probably keep raking up there. But if others had the same experience with mowing leaves, maybe I'll stop bagging the back yard and do all mulching.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

So funny title, Have a wooden property, going on 36 years, we get up all the leaves we can starting mid-October to February. we have so many leaves that the 12X12 piles way in the woods still have not broken down yet from past fall. Have alls sorts of equipment to get them up. There are some areas I don't clear out totally and the lack of grass shows it. I would say, don't leave any leaves on the grass part of your lawn. Yes, with my lawn mower we can't help some cut up leaves to stay there but for the most part all are gone. As far as depth, if we were to not get the leaves up, they would be up to mid calf walking through. Our front lawn is big, just waling from the front door to the street its about 100 paces, and 300 paces wide.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have been told that mulched leaves are good for the lawn, they add nutrients.

I don't think the nutrient value of leaves is very high, but a friend told me of an experiment they did at agricultural college. Various different earths were put in tubes with a grid one end and an excessive amount of water added at the top, they measured both the time it took for water to finish draining through and the amount of water retained. Leaf mould drained off the excess water quickest, but it also retained more water than the others, so it is good to stop flooding, but also keeps the soil moist longer, both good properties.

 

[pepper]

The key is to mulch, mulch, mulch.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So funny title, Have a wooden property, going on 36 years, we get up all the leaves we can starting mid-October to February. we have so many leaves that the 12X12 piles way in the woods still have not broken down yet from past fall. Have alls sorts of equipment to get them up. There are some areas I don't clear out totally and the lack of grass shows it. I would say, don't leave any leaves on the grass part of your lawn. Yes, with my lawn mower we can't help some cut up leaves to stay there but for the most part all are gone. As far as depth, if we were to not get the leaves up, they would be up to mid calf walking through. Our front lawn is big, just waling from the front door to the street its about 100 paces, and 300 paces wide.

There is part of me cries ot at losing all that potential leaf mould, another part feels it is great that it is going back where it belongs. When the Saxons turned up in England and started clearing trees and ploughing there was eight feet thick of leaf mould. Walking down hill past a ploughed field after heavy rain a while ago the field run off in the gutter next to me was yellow with clay, same colour as the field. We have lost all that and the farmer is using chemical fertilizer and watering heavily in summer.

 

[pepper]

This is an interesting topic that I never really thought about until now and I am finding myself diving deeper into it from curiosity. But the more I think about it the more I believe there is no right or wrong when it comes to it. If you look at university studies done like mentioned in the video and college studies as someone mentioned on here as well as millions of people who do mulch the leaves for their lawns and millions who rake them up and dispose of them it really doesn't seem to make a difference either way when you look at YouTube videos and pictures they post about why they do or don't. The lawns all looks the same to me lol, well trimmed and green.

 

[Meadowlark]

I've never seen "too much" mulched leaves, and I live on the edge of The Big Thicket. Great resource.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

it really doesn't seem to make a difference either way when you look at YouTube videos and pictures they post about why they do or don't. The lawns all looks the same to me lol, well trimmed and green.

Could be the ones who are not looking after their lawns in other ways and have scabby horrid lawns don't post pictures of them. I am sure mulching leaves is not the only route to a good lawn, but that doesn't mean it is not one of them.

 

[pepper]

Could be the ones who are not looking after their lawns in other ways and have scabby horrid lawns don't post pictures of them. I am sure mulching leaves is not the only route to a good lawn, but that doesn't mean it is not one of them.

I am actually really surprised I have a half decent looking lawn aside from dandelions because it's the last thing I care about in my home and property maintenance. I really believe if I didn't mulch it every week leaving the grass clippings and mulch the leaves for it there would be nothing to mow accept dirt and weeds. I have a neighbor who is fanatical about his lawn. There is a crew of lawn care people that come about once a week to cut it and haul away every leaf and grass clipping. I also see them each year spraying it for weeds and pests and giving it pellet fertilizer. He has sprinklers set up that seem to be constantly on unless it's raining. But I have never once seen him actually in his yard enjoying it lol, I guess he is either scared of the toxic residues built up in the grass or is worried he might hurt the grass by stepping on it

 

[Meadowlark]

...There is a crew of lawn care people that come about once a week to cut it and haul away every leaf and grass clipping. I also see them each year spraying it for weeds and pests and giving it pellet fertilizer.

That to me is a sad commentary repeated in millions and millions of yards across our Continent. Sad, for the lost resources, sad for the horrible chemicals polluting our waters, sad for the people who don't care enough about their property to take care of it themselves.

Sad, indeed.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I had a couple of customers astounded that I didn't want a job turning a bit of grass into hard standing for a car, or 'That nice pink paving'. Thousands of people doing that in densely populated areas means huge increase in water run off into the sewage system, and a drop in the level 0f the water table. It really happens like that, I wasn't having any part in it and they couldn't understand why when they were willing to pay me.
There are many such people, and nothing will change overnight, but I do believe things are gradually getting better. Let's hope it's in time.

 

[l008com]

Regarding comments some people have made regarding mulching clippings for fertilizer, I just want to saw that in my expereience, up in the northeast, it seems like the number 1 way to get a good lawn is to keep it well watered. I'm not saying theres no point in fertilizing. I mulch my clippings these days AND I fertilize 2 to 3 times per year. But even long before I did all that, rainy summers would make the lawn excellent, dry summers would kill it all. It seems like at least 60% of having a good lawn is TONS of watering. And the rest is fertilizing and pulling weeks. But everyone's climate and soil conditions etc are different so who knows.

And regarding the topic at hand, mulching fall leaves, based on what I've read here and elsewhere, I'm definitely going to try doing all mulching in the back this year (80% of my yard) and I'll attempt it in the front too and see how it goes. With all the rain we're getting, that means even MORE leaves than normal, and I suspect it will be an acorn year too. So I may HAVE to rake the front. But we'll see how it goes.

How does mulching large amounts of leaves affect blade sharpness? I only sharpen mine once in the spring anyway. And so even if fall mowing dulls it more than normal, I suppose that won't realy affect the lawn because I'll be sharpening again before spring mowing anyway. AND I also suppose that a dull blade won't really have any significant affect on leaf mulching. Even a dull metal bar is still going to be hitting leaves very fast and it should break them up pretty effortlessly. But I guess I'll see in (sadly) only a few month

 

[Esther Knapicius]

As an obvious example. On one side of my front area, next to the huge circle of rhodos and the line of Forthia there is a patch of ground, about 20 feet by 10, I just leave the leaves there all winter/spring etc, and basicly all grass is gone. Its an obsure place rarely traveled in. So I rest my case, Leaves on grass, kills grass. How much can you leave, I know there are some in the process of me cutting them up and sucking them up in the riding more to the bags, but in general very little is left behind.