If you have a yard then you know it’s time to pick up some leaves!  This is a necessary chore for every homeowner but it can be turned into something useful for your other plants and turf.

The first thing you can do to help your landscape is to shred the leaves with your mower or put them in a shredder.  Then they are cut up enough to be useful as enrichment for your soil in the lawn, the flower beds or around the shrubs.  In addition your perennial plants would be happy to have a layer of shredded leaves to help protect them from the cold.

Putting leaves on the compost pile is one of the best uses for them as the compost pile needs the fuel from the leaves breaking down in order to turn out that rich compost.  Of course you will need to add some green ingredients such as grass clippings now and then to help keep the pile simmering.

You could use the leaves for some fall decorations if you stuff them in orange trash bags and put some fall items with them.  These are fun for neighborhoods, especially around Halloween.  Those are the only bags you should put them in!  You know you could make a big pile and jump in them before they become useful compost, this is always a fun thing to do for kids, dogs and adults!

The one thing you don’t want to do with leaves is put them in bags to be picked up to put in the dump; this is a royal waste of time for you and for your waste pickup people.  The leaves are so useful in so many ways it would be a shame to send them away!  If you need any help with shredding and distributing your leaves into your beds those of us here at Nature’s Friends Landscaping would be happy to help you fortify your soil.