Leaves on the lawn

[hollyisalovelyname]

Can I leave them on the lawn to decompose and add nutrients to the lawn ? ( asks she hopefully).
Or should I collect them as they will wreck the already fairly poor looking lawn ?

You need to collect them, put them in a black bag, water a bit, stab some air holes and leave to decompose if you want leaf mould

If you leave them on the lawn they wont

No, you do need to get them off the lawn. Leaves take a long time to decompose (relatively speaking). I put some of mine in my compost and some in the garden waste bags that are collected by the council. I try not to overwhelm my compost with leaves, in other words.

Thank you.

By the way LaurieFairyCake I think your name is so cute.

Oh I love a bit of leaf raking! The lawn always looks so nice afterwards. Don't be .

Mintyy my back isn't great so bending to put them into the container makes me fearful it will 'go'.
I've had to crawl in from the garden before.

I blow mine into a pile then store in bin bags.

We got a leaf hoover thing, it's really good, much less effort although you do need to do it when the leaves are dry.

You csn mow the lawn with the leaves on it and then they will all go in the grass collector

It's been so mild the grass is still growing. I keep mowing it (with the blades set high) until the last of the leaves are off. The lawnmower acts like a vacuum cleaner and hoovers them all up with the grass clippings.

Oh, excellent X post funny.

I've just been out and raked mine up, but I did read somewhere that if you mow them without the grass collector on, so they spray over the lawn in tiny pieces then you can leave them there and they'll sink into the lawn and provide nutrients. But leaving them whole will just block out light to the grass and won't help it.

Disclaimer, although I read this I didn't actually do it so if it doesn't work don't blame me.

mowing is a great way to collect them, they break down much quicker when they are chopped up too.

But you should collect them and stick them in a black bag/compost to make lovely leaf mould to use as a mulch next year.

Rubber Duck I live in Ireland - the leaves won't be dry till July

Haha, sounds like the mowing trick is the way to go, then

€10 to a local teen to do it if your back is iffy? I did loads of garden work as a teen in Ireland

Bugger the lawn, shouldn't you all be picking off the yellowed leaves before they fall as in Westminster?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30055912

I rake mine up then use a snow shovel to move them, lifts loads really easily. Either bag them up as per pp or just pile in a corner to rot down (need to wet them to stop them blowing around though).

that westminster story is astonishingly farcically funny. no wonder the country is going to the dogs.

Argh! I finally got round to buying a leaf take and my back lawn is in a terrible state. It doesn't help that it has poured for weeks.

On Gardeners' Question Time it said that worms will take the leaves underground and use them to enrich your earth, it must take a while I suppose, but I also like the birds who peck at slugs and snails which hide under them. So I leave them (admittedly they're not too big).

I have also collected them and let them rot down in a black plastic sack with holes in it which was great for my cyclamen!