Fall is upon us, and so are the leaves. This is a season of beautiful trees and lovely weather, but eventually all of those leaves come down, leaving you with a lot of work. Staying on top of the leaves in your yard can be a daunting task, but it’s important not to let things get too out of hand or you could damage your lawn. If there is a major buildup of unraked leaves, it could provide the perfect breeding ground for lawn diseases as well as block oxygen and sunlight from reaching the grass. Here are a few tips for more effective leaf management.

Some areas of your yard may be far from the nearest natural area requiring you to rake them a long, tiring distance. There’s a simple homemade solution to this, and all you need is a rake and an old sheet. Simply rake a pile of leaves on to the sheet leaving a little space around the edges and fold it up from the edges into a Santa-like sack and carry it to your compost pile, leave pile, etc. You can even have a little fun with the kids while doing so.

Speaking of compost piles, this is another great way to make effective use of fallen leaves by adding them to a compost pile. For more tips on this, visit our post about composting. Even if you don’t have a compost pile, leaves can be raked into natural areas where they serve is organic material for plants there.

If you are truly averse to raking or aren’t physically capable of raking a large lawn, you can mow over them without the grass clipping bags. This will chop them into much finer pieces so that you can mow your grass and collect the leaf waste as well. If you have access to one, a leaf blower is also a good option especially when you have a large amount of leaves covering your lawn.

While there are many ways to go about tackling the leaves, they all take time and energy, which is why some homeowners opt for a professional service to keep up their lawn, especially during the fall.