Why You Should STOP Raking Your Lawn

It would have been nice if this story came out about two weeks ago when it took me several hours to rake my tiny lawn, bag the leaves, and drop them off at the dump. New research suggests raking your lawn is BAD for the environment. Here's the details. 

"Traditionally, leaf removal has entailed three steps: Rake leaves (or blast them with a blower) into piles, transfer the piles to bags and place the bags out to be hauled off to a landfill. Yet, increasingly, conservationists say these actions not only harm the environment but rob your garden of nutrients while destroying wildlife habitat" says National Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewski.

Approximately 33 million tons of leaves and other debris from yards end up in landfills each year.  When they're bagged up, they don't get enough oxygen to decompose, which is a contributing factor to methane.

Here's some tips from the National Wildlife Foundation:

• Let leaves stay where they fall. They won't hurt your lawn if you chop them with a mulching mower.

• Rake leaves off the lawn to use as mulch in garden beds. For finer-textured mulch, shred them first.

• Let leaf piles decompose; the resulting leaf mold can be used as a soil amendment to improve structure and water retention.

• Make compost: Combine fallen leaves (“brown material”) with grass clippings and other “green material” and keep moist and well mixed. You’ll have nutrient-rich compost to add to your garden next spring.

For more wildlife-gardening tips, visit www.nwf.org/garden.