Pick up leaves with your lawn mower

If there are a lot of big trees around your lawn, you know that it is difficult to keep the leaves picked up this time of year. As soon as you rake or blow the leaves more fall down on the lawn.

Rather than raking or blowing, I find the best way to pick up leaves is with a lawn mower. The autumn rains have stimulated the grass to start growing again. Why not pick up the leaves while you mow your lawn? The lawn mower chops the leaves into little pieces which reduces the volume to 1/3 or less.

Leaves are a very good, cheap source of organic matter. Incorporating organic matter into the soil is the very best way to improve it. Spreading leaves over your vegetable garden and annual flower beds and them tilling or spading them in is very beneficial. If you do not have time to do that right away, just pile them in a corner and let them naturally compost over winter. Sprinkle a little lawn fertilizer into the pile to speed up the process

A mixture of chopped leaves and grass clippings makes potent compost which breaks down quickly into rich humus. This happens whether they are mixed into the soil or not.

It is not too late to apply fertilizer to your lawn to keep it dark green all winter, It will stay green even though the temperature virtually stops grass growth in mid to late November.