Am I bonkers?

[gardeningnovice5]

I spent about four hours going over the lawn today picking up every single dead leaf I could. There were tons of them as we have several trees surrounding our garden. I wanted to get them up as they didn’t look very nice and more importantly I was worried they’d kill the lawn. DH says I’m mad to do such a thing, especially in this heat. Am I?

Yes. Why didn't you just get the mower out and mow them up?

Yes - use a rake or a blower. I'm tidying up our outside space and have built a bench, moved a load of compost, cleared a patch behind the shed, built an outdoor shelving unit and am just tidying up having had a Solero as a reward. A bath beckons.

Can I use a mower without cutting the grass? I was worried about using a rake as the grass is very dry. I don’t want to rip it out the ground.

Of course you can use a mower to pick them up, you just adjust the blade it to its highest setting and it won't even touch the grass.

I have always used the mower to pick up leafs in the autumn. Doing it that way picks up most of them meaning that I only have to rake & pick up the few that are remaining.

Oh dear, that’s four hours of my life I’ll never get back then lol.

I do this sometimes and its highly satisfying. Embrace it.

Glad it’s not just me! 😆

Just use the mower on its highest setting. It will work like a hoover.

A summer drop of dry leaves won't have much effect on the lawn. They'll blow away. It's big clumps of wet leaves in autumn than can damage the grass.

(And even that is minimal. Grass is very good at growing back.)