Ah, the unbridled joy of clearing leaves from your lawn…
Let’s face it, clearing leaves off your lawn can be a thankless, soul destroying, tedious job, but something that simply has to be done if you want to keep your lawn in good condition. Whilst it’s a real pleasure to see the fantastic autumn colours start to appear, as those pesky leaves start to fall and cover our lawns they will soon cause long lasting damage if not cleared quickly.
Leaves cause damage to our lawns by starving it of much needed light and air, which quickly kills off healthy grass plants making your pride and joy bare and patchy (never a good look). So brace yourselves as it’s time to grab the leaf rake and start clearing them on a daily basis if possible.
A large plastic leaf rake is an efficient way of dealing with leaves on small lawns or for larger lawns a hand held mechanical leaf blower or compact tractor mounted leaf collector will do the job nicely. Besides if we have to clear the leaves, shouldn’t we get a nice shiny new gadget to do it with?
It is a good idea to remember that most types of leaves can be very useful for our garden when put into a heap and allowed to rot down as Leaf Mould. Creating a leaf mould compost bin area is actually really easy. Simply form a square or oblong compost bin in your garden by erecting 4 wooden fence posts at about 1 metre high and attach chicken wire around the parameter which will contain the leaves and allow then to rot down in a contained area over the next several months. Once rotted, the heap can be sieved through to create fantastic compost or mulch which can be applied back into your garden.
So whilst your inclination may be to leaf them alone (ok we’re nearly done…), do your lawn a favour and clear them away before it starts to suffer.
