Ah, fall. There’s a crisp bite in the air, the scent of pumpkin spice lingers in every room in your home, and the leaves on your trees are finally beginning to turn red and fall off. As the leaves continue to fall, they’ll pile up on your lawn—where they pose a serious risk to the health of your grass.
Raking and disposing of fallen leaves goes much further than just keeping your lawn’s appearance aesthetically pleasing. Too many leaves block the sunlight, leaving huge patches of your lawn to turn brown and unhealthy. That’s why it’s so important to perform regular leaf removal throughout the fall, until every tree on your yard is barren.
So, here are some of the best ways for removing the leaves from your lawn and disposing of them.
Leaf Removal
In Raleigh, North Carolina, homeowners have a variety of different ways they can collect the leaves from their yard. Some methods work better than others.
Raking
Tried and true, raking up your leaves requires a lot of elbow grease and the better part of a Sunday afternoon—especially if you wait too long in the season to begin. The truth is, you should aim to remove all the leaves from your yard at least once a week.
Leaving them for longer than a week prevents your grass from getting much-needed sunlight and makes it more burdensome to collect later on.
Using a Leaf Blower
A much more popular method of leaf removal is by using a professional leaf blower. However, there are a few things to take into consideration before you go out and buy a new leaf blower:
- According to Raleigh’s Noise Ordinance, you can also cause excessive noise from construction-related activities between 7 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
- Be careful not to blow leaves into the road or your neighbor’s lawn
- If you want to dispose of the leaves immediately, consider using a shop vac to suck them up instead of a leaf blower.
- You can also set up a tarp on your lawn near the leaves, and then use the leaf blower to blow them onto the tarp. This makes clean up even easier.
Mulch Your Leaves
Own a lawn mower with a grass catcher attached? Fall is the time to remove it. You can mow your lawn in the fall even if it’s covered in leaves. The mower will shred the leaves and turn it into a nutritional mulch that will keep your lawn fed throughout winter.
When doing this, mow your lawn in stripes. That way, you can continue trimming the leaves down to a smaller and smaller size, as well as distribute them evenly across your lawn.
Leaf Disposal
Now comes the harder part. There are many different ways to remove the leaves from your lawn (unless you’re mulching them, then you can leave them be!), and some are easier than others.
- Bag them up using biodegradable paper bags or clear plastic bags and wait for the City of
- Raleigh to collect them along with your trash
- Take them to the Yard Waste Recycling Center at 900 N. New Hope Road
- Compost them in your backyard
- Hire a professional to do it for you
Leave it to a Professional
Don’t want to deal with the hassle of raking and removing leaves from your yard all season long? Let us do it for you. Give us a call today for a free consultation for your leaf and lawn debris removal needs.