Hints for Larger Lawn Leaf Mulching

[andy10917]

I'm starting a thread to pass along some of my learnings for mulching leaves into the lawn, and others who have done it for 5+ years or so may want to add their learnings to help those that are just beginning the practice...

(1) If you have one, use a back blower. Leaves don't fall evenly over the lawn, and spreading them more evenly over the lawn makes for having the organic matter help everywhere, and also means fewer passes.

(2) With the back blower, it ain't about "more horsepower". If you're going to run the blower 100% of the time at 110% of the power, the leaves will form an ever-increasingly large pile in front of you. Try finesse - 50% power and just spread them nice and easy. In the end, the job will be done in less time.

(3) Be at your winter height of cut. There are two reasons for this -- more grass mixed with the leaves helps the mulched leaves to break down sooner, and the lower HOC means the leaves don't get shot off to the left and right of the mower deck.

(4) Walk s-l-o-w-l-y. Yes, the snail/slug in the lawn should be leaving you in it's dust. The more time you spend over a spot, the smaller the leaf particles will be, and you will avoid extra passes. The idea is to get the particles down to pinky-fingernail size.

(5) Overlap your passes. Same result as (4) above.

(6) Don't be a perfectionist. You will be back in a few days - what you don't get today, you'll get next time.

(7) Blow the leaves out of the flowerbeds AFTER you've past the "peak week" of the leaves falling. They're not going anywhere, so concentrate on quantity over quality. And you'll want the leaves for muching (OM) when you're in the in the mop-up phase.

(8) As long as you've got some of the grass sticking out of the mulched material, you can't overdo this. You'll be shocked how quickly they disappear. Really.

(9) If you have tons of leaves, a little (0.25") of water makes things disappear more quickly. Yes, near the Peak Week, I water daily unless it rains. (GASP!!) It's optional, but helps.

Feel free to add things that have worked well for you...

[Wors]

All great tips Andy. Thanks for sharing.

I had truck loads of leaves dumped in a mulch area last year. I raked them on a tarp. Then just dumped the tarped leaves around the yard and blew the piles around with a leaf blower. Then mowed them multiple times.

[kentster]

Good list Andy!

Yesterday, I gave the microherd a nice meal of grass and leaves yesterday. I also used the backpack leaf blower to spread the leaves as evenly as possible. My new Cub Cadet mulched everything up nicely with a few passes.

[Green]

(3) Be at your winter height of cut. There are two reasons for this -- more grass mixed with the leaves helps the mulched leaves to break down sooner, and the lower HOC means the leaves don't get shot off to the left and right of the mower deck.

Feel free to add things that have worked well for you...

Can you please clarify/elaborate on this tip? I'm not following. Winter (lower) height of cut means less grass surface area, so less room for leaf pieces in my experience. What do you mean by "more grass"? Do you mean more clippings?

Also, I would add...use any blower you can reach the area with. I have/use an electric handheld one. Nothing special about a backpack blower except portability and more power and volume.

Also, sometimes I'll bag leaves from one area and dump them in another (not literally dump) for mulching.

Thanks.

[andy10917]

Winter (lower) height of cut means less grass surface area, so less room for leaf pieces in my experience.

Not my experience. A higher HOC this time of year lays down more than lower HOC, and the higher you make the deck, the poorer the suction is. The mower also blows more material out of the sides of the deck bottom at higher cuts. I find that many mowers mulch the leaves finer when the cut is lower (more rotations before they drop out?). My best leaf mulching happens at a 2.5" HOC. And upright grass (even at 2.5") lets the mulched pieces actually settle between the grass blades very well.

What do you mean by "more grass"? Do you mean more clippings?

Yes. Brown leaves decompose faster when mixed with nice fresh grass clippings mixed in.

I agree that any blower is better than none, but there is a huge difference in power between electrics and powered blowers. I myself have an Echo back blower (nice enough) and my son has a Husqvarna (mammoth air - very jealous!). Even between back blowers the differences can be huge.

[Green]

Not my experience. A higher HOC this time of year lays down more than lower HOC, and the higher you make the deck, the poorer the suction is. The mower also blows more material out of the sides of the deck bottom at higher cuts. I find that many mowers mulch the leaves finer when the cut is lower (more rotations before they drop out?). My best leaf mulching happens at a 2.5" HOC. And upright grass (even at 2.5") lets the mulched pieces actually settle between the grass blades very well.

Hmm. We have opposite experiences in this realm. Interesting. In fact, the only reasons I'm still at Summer HOC (3.75 in) are:

1.) I didn't get to mow soon enough to lower it yet (that's with a PGR, by the way), and
2.) It's helping with the leaf mulching, as usual in my case.

Maybe the variables are grass type and the mower. I have a lot of Tall Fescue and KBG. Tall Fescue is of course pretty stiff.

A bigger blower is in the plan someday.

[andy10917]

Whatever works for your lawn and mower is fine with me. I'd get on that HOC if I were you though - I personally would not wait until after the slowdown happens - there isn't time for the browner blades down low to green-up.

[Green]

Whatever works for your lawn and mower is fine with me. I'd get on that HOC if I were you though - I personally would not wait until after the slowdown happens - there isn't time for the browner blades down low to green-up.

I know, but the rain has been preventing me. Normally I'm down to 3.25 inches by late September (Final height for Winter is around 2.6, which is the next notch below that on my mower.) I'm planning to start lowering it on the next mow or two, depending how high it is next time...starting in the back, where there's less sun...as long as I'm not getting a cold now (which it feels like I might be), and I hope I feel well enough mow again in a day or two...always something getting in the way.

Mulching is also best with my mower at the 3.25 in setting...but what I meant in the previous post was there is less grass at that height to accept the leaves, versus at a half inch higher where I am now.

But yes, I hear you that all the natural processes responsible for leaf mulching and plant health this time of year will work better if I can get down to around 3 inches soon.

[Pway]

I would say we have less than 5% of the leaves down thus far. What I’ve tried to do in the past is keep up with mulching but I think everything is going to come down at once when they do fall.

[ken-n-nancy]

(6) Don't be a perfectionist. You will be back in a few days - what you don't get today, you'll get next time.

I've found that this tip is a huge one.

In the fall, I mow to mulch up leaves every 4 days or so (basically the same frequency as my springtime mowing). Because there are leaves falling on my lawn every day for about 4 weeks, there's no point in getting every last leaf mulched up during any given mowing, as a couple hours after I've finished, there will be quite a few more on the lawn again.

So, I just strive to get about 80% - 90% of the leaves mulched up during any single mowing. The ones that get missed will get another shot at getting mulched up in a few days during the next mowing. As an example of this, see the "before" and "after" pictures below. I should note that in the "after" picture, I'm only about 2/3 done with mulching that section, but that should be obvious.

"Before" Mulching Leaves


"After" (well, 2/3 done) Mulching Leaves

[andy10917]

Yup - it's a big one. When we bought this home (32 years ago) and moved in, several of the neighbors said "we looked at your house, but THE LEAVES". We had no idea. We were into piling huge mountains of leaves on tarps and we had a place in the yard called "Mount Compost" - it was something like 60' X 20' X 13' high. It had its own path to the top. When the peak of the leaves happened, we put down our rakes, grabbed a beer, and watched a veritable blizzard of leaves come down. It took us until New Years Eve to get them all raked and moved to Mount Compost. It was less than 6 hrs later that the first real Nor'easter hit.

They come down so fast and so hard that trying to keep up is impossible. Now we just try to mulch in as many as possible, and stay in control. Pretty be damned, I'm happy to stay almost even each week. I estimate our leaves at 24" - 30" per year in areas near the trees, a little less away from the trees.

[seiyafan]

Andy, ever thought of starting a compost business? =)

[andy10917]

No, but living so close to the Woodbury Commons, I've been tempted to charge the city folk $5 to take all the leaves they can rake back to NYC...

[Green]

I would say we have less than 5% of the leaves down thus far. What I’ve tried to do in the past is keep up with mulching but I think everything is going to come down at once when they do fall.

Thankfully ours are coming down steadily this year...unlike last year when almost everything dropped in November, and then more blew in from other places through New Year's. By then, the ground was too cold and wet to do anything more with the mower, so there were a couple of areas in the low input area that went into Winter with some leaves on the grass...not what I wanted to happen.

[Smolenski7]

I'm guessing that about 15% of the leaves are down here in central CT. My feeling is that they are all going to come down at once.....but that's just a guess. As far as HOC, I'm down to 3.0". Green is right though, it seems that this fall is particularly hard to keep up with the lawn. It has rained every couple of days, and when it's not raining it's cloudy, which just keeps the soil super moist and not ideal for mowing. 3.0" though seems to be the ideal height for my Simplicity Broadmoor. Any lower, and the deck has a hard time mulching well.....it tends to leave clumps of grass. Any higher, and the suction isn't as great. My final HOC will be in the area of 2.5", but that probably won't happen until the first week of November this year.

I do have a tip related to not being a perfectionist and the goal being to get the leaves down to about the size of a pinky nail. I suggest mowing in one direction, say north to south. Then coming back over the same section a second time but east to west. I find because of how the blades lay down, coming back over at a 90' angle compared to the first cut usually gets a lot of the larger pieces left behind. As a result, the leaves are almost not noticeable and nothing is left behind.

[Green]

Green is right though, it seems that this fall is particularly hard to keep up with the lawn. It has rained every couple of days, and when it's not raining it's cloudy, which just keeps the soil super moist...

I can't get my Serenade down between the rain and leaves, and wind. I have rust, and really need to use it, but can't! No point in applying less than a day before rain, or the day of rain!

But back to topic...I am glad the leaves are coming down "gradually". If you can call it that. Much easier to mulch that way. However, I have a lot of sticks to pick up first each time...I get a leaf bag full of them from the front yard. You can't mulch sticks (twigs and branches)! And they're hard to see under the leaves.

[Green]

So here is my tip for dealing with the sticks...

I sweep as many from the driveway edges as possible into the middle, then I walk the lawn and throw the ones in the lawn onto the driveway. I then sweep up the middle of the driveway before blowing/mulch mowing.

[lVlrBoJang1es]

Two thoughts to add:

Edit: I’m new to this stuff and struggled quite a bit with mulch mowing the first 2 years in my house. These are tips (among many others listed above) that helped me overcome the issues I was facing.

1) Blow off your sidewalks and driveway before mowing, and once again after. I’ve mulched my front, went to my back yard and by the time I was done with the back all of the leaves from my drive blew into the front yard again. This also stops a “leaf framed” yard; where you mulch mow everything off the lawn, then when you blow the clippings off the sidewalks/drive you also blow all the leaves from the cement on to the perimeter of the yard.

2) My mower (even right out of the box) tends to discharge from the deck a bit more on one side (left side in my case) than the other. Thus, I mow my yard when mulching in a counter clockwise direction (as opposed to an alternating North->south->north->south of a non mulching cut) so that I don’t discharge rails of semi mulched leaves onto my previously clean prior pass. I more or less continuously push the bits of discharge towards the center of the yard on each lap.

Oh and a 3rd I guess:

3) Stay on top of it! I find that if I wait too long and let too much build up, the mulched matter can accumulate to a point where the yard never fully dries out (even just from dew/frost melting and no rain). The next layer of falling leaves stays wet and compounds the issue. So on and so forth...

[andy10917]

Item #3 is important. Once you've heard a frozen mat of leaves hit the mower blade once (which will start to be more common), you'll get religion quickly...

[Chris LI]

Item #3 is important.

I agree. Also, if you stay up on it, you give the microherd an opportunity to digest more of the leaf mulch in smaller intervals, instead of waiting and mulching huge amounts in one shot. (I usually get slammed at one point anyway, but mulching 2x per week helps to stay ahead of it).

For Item #2, I do the same sometimes, but other times I double cut with a cross-hatch pattern to break up the trails of leaves.