While autumn leaves stand out beautifully, they become a mess on your lawn once they fall. Most homeowners don’t look forward to raking up leaves. Luckily, mulching them with a lawn mower is a great alternative. Here’s what you need to know about mulching leaves and the benefits it provides.
Learn to Mulch Fallen Leaves
While you could easily outfit a conventional mower with a serrated blade specifically designed for mulching leaves, it’s not necessary, as any lawn mower will do. Simply adjust the height of the mower, remove the bag attachment, and mow over the grass and leaves, letting the shredded bits remain on the lawn.
Turfgrass specialists from Michigan State University shared that up to 6 inches of leaves can be mulched at a time, depending on the type of mower.
A Few Tips Before You Start
Before you’re ready to start, run through this checklist:
- Check for hidden objects. Running over a rock or another hard object could damage your mower’s blades or crankshaft.
- Set the right mower height. Generally speaking, 2.5 to 3 inches is best.
- Mulch dry leaves. Mulching wet leaves is more demanding on your mower, as they don’t break down nearly as effectively.
- Be prepared to go over the leaves 2 or 3 times. One pass is not enough to break them down into small enough pieces.
Benefits of Mulching Leaves Into the Lawn
Of course, you may wonder why you should go through this process. Here are the benefits.
Improve the Health of Your Soil
As the bits of leaves settle into the soil and decompose, they improve the health of the soil. Mulching has been shown to:
- control crop pests and diseases.
- decrease salinity.
- encourage biological activity.
- enhance nutrient availability.
- enhance root absorption.
- increase moisture retention.
- reduce evaporation.
- regulate temperature.
- suppress weeds.
This also saves people from having to buy lawn fertilizer and weed control products.
Keep Yard Trimmings Out of Landfill
Mulching leaves is better for the environment. In 2018, yard trimming waste comprised 35.4 million tons. Of that, 22 million tons were composted and 10.5 million tons went to landfills. By mulching leaves into lawns, homeowners can help cut back on this waste.
Save Time and Effort
Mulching is a far less labor-intensive process. Forgo raking the entire yard and filling and hauling bags to the curb. This saves time and prevents people from straining their backs.
You’re Ready With EZ-POUR®
All that’s left is to refill your lawn mower, and EZ-POUR®’s Replacement Fuel Spout & Vent Kit is the convenient solution. With this kit, you’ll have the supplies needed to upgrade your gas can.
Check out our application chart to see if your gas can may need an adapter, and head on over to our website to shop EZ-POUR® today!