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Saving Money By Mulching The Leaves
9 CommentsWe have a lot of trees on our property, and so the fall brings lots and lots of leaves.
I’ve been raking them and bagging them, but my pack of 25 bags that I bought at Costco ran out last week, and I forgot to buy more. I started wondering if I could just mulch them instead with my mulching lawn mower. I did a little research and found that mulching leaves can be very beneficial to the lawn as it will provide nutrients.
This article gave me some useful information, and I’ve since read additional information that helps me believe that using the mulching mower is not a bad thing. Unknown to us, there are still earthworms in the ground that will use the mulched leaves to create valuable nutrients that will help the lawn next spring.
So, this past week I actually used the mower and it looks great. The mower shreds the leaves a lot smaller than I would have guessed, and it saved me from having to buy more yard waste bags.
Some highlights from the article, others that I’ve read, and from my own personal experience:
- It’s better to mulch leaves when they’re dry. Mine were still damp from a rainfall the previous night. If they’re damp, you just have to go slower to let the mower have more time to mulch
- If there are too many leaves, you should probably stick to raking. When you cut your grass and it leaves clumps, that means it’s probably too high and you should bag it. The same principle applies to mulching leaves. If they’re more than an inch thick, the mower probably won’t be effective at mulching them and it’d be better to rake and bag.
- You can collect the mulch and spread it around other areas. Apparently a layer of mulch a couple of inches thick around bushes and flower beds will also help provide nutrients to those areas.
- I probably wouldn’t mulch every time since we have so many trees. I figure if I never collected the leaves, I might be placing too much mulch down would not be doing any benefit after a while. I’d recommend mulching no more often than every other time.
Happy raking and mulching!
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9 Responses to “Saving Money By Mulching The Leaves”
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It’s amazing you’re writing about snow shovels and mulching. Where I live, we’re dealing with 90 degree weather (and unfortunately, massive brush fires). The span of this country is astonishing. Glad to see you’re enjoying as well as planning for the change in season.
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[...] Money Beagle: Saving Money By Mulching The Leaves [...]
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It is amazing how much things are different around the country. I hope that the brush fires have settled down and people affected can start re-building.
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An Introduction to Mulching for Beginner Gardeners : GardenFingers said on November 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
[...] Saving Money By Mulching The Leaves [...]
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The Simple Dollar » The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Birthday Update Edition said on November 26th, 2008 at 9:01 am
[...] Saving Money by Mulching the Leaves My yard has almost no leaves at all in it – the wind picks them up and blows them right out of our yard. However, if your yard accumulates leaves easily, this can be a great weekend project – perhaps this weekend, since it’s a long one and the weather’s not too cold yet. (@ money beagle) [...]
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The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Birthday Update Edition | Rich Dad Poor Dad Blog said on November 26th, 2008 at 10:03 am
[...] Saving Money by Mulching the Leaves My yard has almost no leaves at all in it – the wind picks them up and blows them right out of our yard. However, if your yard accumulates leaves easily, this can be a great weekend project – perhaps this weekend, since it’s a long one and the weather’s not too cold yet. (@ money beagle) [...]
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oldernwiser said on November 26th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Ok, I’m officially jealous…you have enough leaves for 25 bags…more than once a season? Save yourself a LOT of time and money…(and DON’T throw away the “black gold” that you have available…)
1. If you have a bagger on you mower, bag the mulched leaves and then dump them around your bushes, flowerbeds.
2. Dump the bagged, mulched leaves in a pile in the back of your yard and then start adding all your kitchen trimmings to the pile and let it compost.
3. If you’ve got to rake them, use a big blue tarp and rake onto that, then drag THAT to the back corner of your yard and dump it. It will “cold compost” . Rot happens.
3. Use the compost for a small garden or to add to flowerpots in the spring for container gardens for veggies and tomatoes. (FREE !)
4. If I didn’t live in Alabama I’d be at your curbside every weekend if you still insisted on bagging and putting them on the curb. Since I don’t, check with your neighbors or put something on Craig’s List so somebody can take full advantage of the free fertilizer you are throwing away.
5. Visit http://www.gardenweb.com and find the Soil and Compost forum…you’ll be surprised at what you can add to those leaves to make “black gold”…
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kodijack said on November 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I took our truck and drove around our neighborhood collecting bagged leaves, created a big pile in the back corner of our yard. This was three weeks ago, its already down about 10% in size. And instead of them getting buried at the landfill I am going to have about three cubic yards of compost next spring.
Bagging and throwing leaves away is a rotten waste of time. You are actually spending money to take the compostable material out of your yard and putting it underground.
A lot of cities and counties have leaf collection programs as well.
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[...] Saving Money by Mulching the Leaves [...]
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