You can easily outfit a conventional, nonmulching mower with a serrated blade specially designed for mulching leaves. But neither is strictly necessary. Any type of lawn mower can chop up leaves although it might take a few passes to do the job well. No matter what type of mower you own, prepare by setting the blade, or mower height, to its highest setting for mulching leaves.
Then, remove the bag that collects clippings. If the leaves are especially thick, you might need to spread them out or pick up some from the top making that fun pile for the kids and dog. Turfgass specialists at Michigan State University say that you can mulch up to 6 inches of leaves at once. Proceed to mow the lawn just as if it were any other day, when it might be the most exciting day of your life—the day you finally break free from the tyranny of raking.
The goal is to cut the leaves into shreds that are about a half-inch in diameter more or less the size of a dime. Again, it might take more than one pass when mowing leaves to get the shreds to the desired size, depending on the leaf type and volume. A passerby might easily be fooled into thinking that you had raked, so if neatness matters, mulching still can work for you.
One week, let the mowed, chopped leaves remain in place. Then the next week, add the bag collector, run over the leaves with the mower again, and empty the mulched remains on a garden bed or around a winter-tender plant. Decomposing leaves enhance the soil with valuable nutrients that feed the microbes and worms present in any healthy lawn.
This means that compared with raking, mulching leaves is easier and more lawn-friendly, plus less costly, saving you both the money and time spent on bagging leaves and fertilizing. Mowing leaves for mulch in fall is an easy solution, but there are other options.
Consider one of these methods to mulch leaves in your lawn. Mulching leaves is like adding free compost to the lawn. Use a grass catcher to gather leaves as you mow over them. You also can allow leaf pieces to decompose in place on the lawn. To do this, chop leaves into dime-size pieces.
Depending on how large leaves are and how deep the layer is, you may need to mow over them several times to chop them small enough. After mowing, you should see roughly 50 percent of the grass through the leaf pieces. The more grass you see, the more quickly those leaf pieces will decompose. As the leaf bits settle onto soil between grass blades, microbes start the process of decomposition.
Providing a nitrogen source, like that found in a winterizer or fall-timed lawn fertilizer, will help soil microbes break down leaves faster. Allowing leaves to decompose in place ultimately enhances the soil beneath your lawn, adding organic matter, which leads to a healthier, thicker lawn.
Thick, leathery leaves won't decompose as well and should be gathered with a bagger attachment and added to a compost pile or used as mulch. Downsizing the Pile If you need to gather leaves and set them out for community yard waste pickup, plan to reduce leaf volume — and the number of yard waste bags you need to use. Use a leaf vacuum with a shredder feature to chop leaves, or mow over them and use the grass catcher attachment on your mower to capture leaf bits.
If the product has a reduction ratio, that means it converts 10 bags' worth of unchopped leaves into one bag. For small areas, a handheld leaf vac works well. Call Us. Good Nature Blog. Run your mower over the leaves a few times to chop them into small pieces.
Lightly rake the chopped leaves into a pile, smaller in size than if you were raking leaves that hadn't been mowed. Mow that pile a few more times and rake the remaining leaves into the lawn.
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