The thing that most people should be doing with leaves is mulching them.
Set your mower as high as it will go and then just drive the mower over the leaves. It will pulverize the leaves. That will make it so that you’ve got all these little leaf bits falling falling between the grass blades and it will help to provide an insulating layer not only for the grass, but for the tree roots ... .
Those leaves will help to hold nutrients the following year and provide all sorts of fantastic benefits to earthworms and other beneficial organisms in the soil and to the tree and the grass itself.
Paul Wheaton
Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy
Certified Master Gardener
Listen to the full interview below, and feel free to share your comments.
For a fully open lawn this mow high approach seems simple. But how many of us are more like me, with a mix of trees, shrub beds, grass and ground cover. Rake that into an open area and mulch? I also have an area with no grass, but where lots of leaves will fall.