Fallen leaves look wonderfully autumnal and the different colors are sometimes mesmerizing. The trouble is, leaves don’t always fall during the autumn months – trees often shed them all throughout the year, and even if you like how they look, these leaves can create problems in your garden.
Having too many fallen leaves might cause shade on your lawn, depriving it of natural sunlight and moisture. This makes it dry out and die, leaving you with a patchy lawn. An abundance of loose leaves also stops looking nice and makes your garden look extremely messy. Unfortunately, with so many leaves to deal with, you might struggle to get rid of every last one. There’s a clear set of tactics involved in leaf removal and we’ve broken the process down to three very simple steps.
Step 1: Gather the leaves into a pile
First things first, gather all of the leaves into a big pile – or multiple piles if there are too many. This can be done with a rake when you don’t have loads of leaves to deal with, but using something like a Worx battery powered leaf blower makes the whole process far quicker to complete.
Move the leaves into piles so they’re easier for you to manage. Once that’s done, you can proceed to the second step.
Step 2: Transfer the piles to bags
Go to the piles of leaves and start transferring them into bags. You can find garden waste bags from loads of garden centers or online stores – some local councils also provide them for free if you ask for them. They’re big bags with plenty of space for loose leaves, grass cuttings, and everything else.
This is the hardest step as you have to transfer the leaves to these bags. Get a pair of gardening gloves on to scoop them up and put them in the bags. If you want, you can use a shovel or some type of scooping device to start, then finish with gloves to get the last few straggling leaves from the pile. When all the bags are full, you’re ready for the final step.
Step 3: Dispose of the leaves
By now you should have all the leaves gathered in bags. All that’s left is to correctly dispose of them. You can do this in one of two ways:
- Take the bags to your local recycling center and throw the leaves in with garden waste
- Dump the leaves in a compost bin
Both options are perfectly fine and ensure your dried-up leaves get disposed of the right way. The second idea is excellent if you have a compost bin or want to start one. Dried leaves are organic matter and they break down easily, creating loads of great nutrients to use as compost for fertilization.
Regardless of how you dispose of your leaves, these three steps ensure your garden remains free of them. Try to do this as often as possible when you notice fallen leaves on your lawn. It not only stops the leaves from damaging the lawn; it means the process is a lot quicker as you’re taking action before too many leaves fall down!
