To bag or not???

THEPATRIOT said:

I take care of my grandmothers yard for her.In the fall their ar pleanty of leaves to get rid of.We rake them and it SUCKS!I don't own a tractor with a bagger at this time.Is it "bad" for the lawn to just mulch the leaves comparred to bagging them???She thinks it is,but i want to know the truth.Any help would be great,thanks.

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well it depends i wouldnt want chips leaves everwere but i dont bag my grass the biggest issue would be like if you leave something o nthe lawn it burns it but if its in the fall less risk of that maybe raking or blowing them would still be the best

THEPATRIOT said:

I take care of my grandmothers yard for her.In the fall their ar pleanty of leaves to get rid of.We rake them and it SUCKS!I don't own a tractor with a bagger at this time.Is it "bad" for the lawn to just mulch the leaves comparred to bagging them???She thinks it is,but i want to know the truth.Any help would be great,thanks.

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It depends on just how many leaves you are talking about...

If you have LOTS of LEAVES...This system works well...
http://www.cyclonerake.com/index.htm

I get ALOT of leaves in some places and none in others. If I could even it out there'd be just the right amount to keep the entire lawn healthy and not smother the area near the trees. Leaves can be a tough call, but you can make the most of them by mulching and bagging "some" of them. Like you can bag the first week's worth and grind up the rest or any other ratio that won't smother the lawn. There has to be plenty of green showing in amongst the ground up leaves for the lawn grass plants not to suffer (my particular conditions). Amount of sunlight makes another consideration in how fast the left behind mulch will break down. Oak leaves should be buzzed to near dust and maples will break down in postage stamp size OK...

I pick up MOST because I make my own compost and add the leaves to the already working green stuff. But I make sure to leave maybe ¼ of the total fall for lawn food. Again, my conditions apply to this... yours may be different.

What are the rest of Grandma's neighbors doing with theirs under similar conditions...? Might be another clue for your adjustments.

Whenever I do lawns, if it's short enough to mow with a muching system I use that...though if it's v.long and would leave a mess if muched, I collect and compost....so that it can be mulched round borders in future months.

When it comes to leaves, again if it'll look neat muched I mulch, but collect when needs be. Just a case of using good judgement, knowing what you can get away with given the conditions.

...generally all lawns I mow on a weekly basis get mulched, and all lawns done on a fortnightly basis get bagged and composted for borders later in the year.

Dave

30 odd years ago, I mowed a small lawn for a relative who insisted on my "grinding up" the fallen leaves with the 22" mower he had. The quantity of leaves was substantial- his process was to mow with the discharge facing toward the uncut area until the mower would bog, then reverse course for one or two passes, discharging across the newly cut area. It looked awful in the fall, but in spring the grass looked great, and seemed to grow faster than I could get it mowed. That house still has one of the thickest stands of grass I have seen.

I have several trees around, but not a forest- I believe there are 16 in our acre "yard". I haven't collected, bagged or transported leaves in years and don't figure on doing so. What my mower doesn't "grind up" the wind takes care of, I guess. I don't remember the last time I thought about leaves until I viewed this thread moments ago.

If you don't have a powerfull leaf collection system on your tractor, or like me only have a 10.5hp engine with small deck which will keep bogging out when trying to collect masses of material...another idea...used it couple of times and worked well.

Sit on your tractor with your back-pack (or hand held if yours isnt back-pack, jus less powerfull and not as effective) blower, and go in circles round and round working your way to middle of the lawn with your blower pointing inwards.

Then just grab your snow shovel and scoop the big pile you've made into builers ton-bags. Then I just hook the bags onto the back-frame of my tractor and drag them all to composting areas on gardens. Some end up too heavy to drag by hand when packed full, esp. if leaves are damp.

Though, wont be a quick process if everything's soaked, you're really relying on a crisp dry day for this to work well and save you any time.

Dave

I read something this past Spring about not letting the fall's fallen leaves decay on the lawn because they're very acidic. I can't varify this at all, so maybe you can search for it.

As such, this Spring I used one of lawnboys to blow the leaves to the midddle f the yard. The first pass around the circumference was over the leaves, but an additional pass over the same area started slowing leaves off the adjascent pass, and so on. In the end, most of the leaves were intact, and bagged.

I couldn't get over how much air this lawnboy pushed.

Depends which species of tree the leaves are coming from, pine needles are very acidic and Oak leaves, they contain lots of toxic tannins and other stuff...though natural processes break these chemicals down over time.

Wouldnt say the acidity of leaves causes the problem, as all soils are differnt Ph's anyway, a hint of acidity in fall wouldn't really make that much difference IMO.

I reckon the main problem is in larger leaves, such as sycamore leaves....they really block the light out to the lawn if left. This is the reason I collect leaves from lawns (or at least shred and mulch with mower), to allow as much light to the grass leaves and allow as much air to circulate through the lawn as poss.

Dave

No don't think that trees are grass's worst enemy, I mean there are hundreds of woodland species of grass which are more than happy growing on the woodland floor being fed by last years fall of nicely composted leaves.

Think it's more like leaves are every gardeners worst enemy, as they get everywhere!! lol. and they may temporarily damage small areas of manicured lawns if left too long....tho grass will soon recover, it's tough stuff.

But thinking about the initial question, to bag or not, I really dont think it'll make that much difference to the health of your lawn, more personal preference as to how tidy you want your garden.

Out of the 50 gardens I've been looking after the last few years, some clients prefere the grass clippings and leaves in fall mulched in to feed the lawn....some want them collected so that there's not a leaf in sight, though they then also want spring and autumn lawn feed treatments...and some dont have any maintenance over autumn/winter, which means leaves just blow about and rot down naturally untill the first cut in spring.

neither of the lawns are in bad health, or suffer from fungus with rotting material or have permanant damage from leaf builf-up. It's really just a case of how much time you have to spare for your garden and how spotless you want it

PristineGardens said:

No don't think that trees are grass's worst enemy, I mean there are hundreds of woodland species of grass which are more than happy growing on the woodland floor being fed by last years fall of nicely composted leaves.

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I never claimed they were their worst enemy. There are many noxious weeds that vie for top spot. That said, most people don't have woodland species of grasses for their lawn.

As mentioned before, the volume of leaves are a factor so some amount can be mulched on the spot but larger volumes should be picked up and composted off site and returned later as top dressing. If you mulch them on the spot, an extra application of nitrogen fertilizer may be prudent so that nitrogen fixing weeds don't get a leg up on the turf grasses.

PristineGardens said:

neither of the lawns are in bad health, or suffer from fungus with rotting material or have permanant damage from leaf builf-up.

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I'm guessing snow mold is not a problem then in your area. I get both the pink and the white stuff! On the last cut of the season, I have to scalp my lawn and sweep it up or else I have snow mold issues come Spring. It isn't permanent damage, but it certainly takes a long time to recover and gives weeds an opportunity to establish.

LLigetfa said:

I'm guessing snow mold is not a problem then in your area. I get both the pink and the white stuff! On the last cut of the season, I have to scalp my lawn and sweep it up or else I have snow mold issues come Spring. It isn't permanent damage, but it certainly takes a long time to recover and gives weeds an opportunity to establish.

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That and they are not hauling out fully loaded 7x14' dump trailer loads of mulched leaves either...