Greener Gardening: Leave Your Fall Leaves

By Kaitlyn LaBelle

While fall leaves may seem like a nuisance to some or a beautiful sign of the season to others, properly managed leaves can have a great significance to your local ecosystem, providing soil fertilization, weed suppression and more. To learn more, we talked to Jess Horenstein, outdoor foreman at Phipps, about what happens when you dispose of leaves and what beneficial alternatives exist.

If you bag and dispose of your leaves, “depending on the borough or city you live in, leaves may not go to be composted,” Jess explains, “they may be sent to the landfill.” In 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that landfills received 10.8 million tons of yard trimmings in landfills. Another popular disposal method in some areas is burning the leaves; however, Jess warns that burning yard waste can cause fires to spread and increase air pollution.

Want to keep waste out of landfills and make use of that great potential compost? Jess shared three options that can work for you.

1. Create Compost

Composting leaves can be very beneficial to soil, as they will give nutrients to the soil as they decompose. “Homeowners can use dried leaves in their compost as part of the ‘brown’ portion that should be balanced with the green in a 2:1 ratio (green:brown),” explains Jess.

2. Mow it Over

If you’re not yet composting at home but still want to harness the power of leaves, another popular option is to shred your leaves with a lawnmower or leaf-shredder. Shredded leaves can be left under trees where nothing is growing or in home gardens or even on the lawn in a thin, sparse layer.

3. Make Some Mulch

Mulching these leaves with an electric leaf shredder, or simply mowing over them, will allow for spreading in gardens and yards that will be beneficial to the soil. “If it is mulched finely enough some of the mulch can sit on the lawn without causing fungal issues and enrich the lawn the way that spreading compost would,” Jess explains. When leaves are mulched, they will likely break down during the winter months, enriching the soil in the process.

When managed in the right way, fallen leaves can be a big benefit to your lawn and garden, providing free compost and mulch. And it’s important for us as a part of the ecosystem to take a role in their responsible maintenance. Leave a comment with any other leaf-related questions and we’ll be sure to answer!