Whenever the season of falling leaves arrives, one question arrives with it; is it necessary to a leaf clean up in St Augustine? And the follow-up questions certainly does make sense as well. It’s a part of nature, leaves falling on the grass; so it’s a good thing. How can a few leaves hurt the health of the lawn? And despite these questions, they still see some of their neighbors following this practice. What is it that these neighbors know and they don’t? Should you do a leaf clean up from your lawn in St Augustine?
There are several reasons why making sure that there are no leaves on your lawn makes sense. Some of them include the fact that like people, the lawn also has to “breathe”. By breathing, it means that the lawn needs a certain amount of fresh air. However, with the leaves piling up it will block that source of air. If there’s a continued presence of layers of leaves on top, then there is a good chance of several diseases making their way through like snow mold and brown patch. This would also lead to a greater number of insect attacks. The leaves not only block the air patch, they also block water and nutrients from properly reaching the roots of the grass. This would also lead to the grass losing its strength and being vulnerable to diseases, weed attacks, and insects. And most of all, the weight of the leaves on top of the grass can lead to them being knotted down and preventing new grass blades from growing for the next season.
The reasons above, are just some of the problems that can affect the grass if we don’t do a leaf clean up in time. A lot of these problems have a lot to do with the weather. In the northern areas of the US, most lawns have cold season grass. The reason for this name is that these sorts of grasses are active mostly when the weather is moderately cold. Fall, the time when leaves begin falling, is one of those times. At this stage, the cold weather grass needs the proper amount of sunlight, nutrients, and water while being in temperatures that are neither too cold nor warm. This is to strengthen their roots for the upcoming season.
All of this is prevented if there’s a thick layer of fallen leaves on top of the grass. Such a layer would deprive the grass of the most essential element of their growth; sunlight. It is not necessary that we remove each and every leave with a leaf clean up. You just have to make sure that no large layers of leaves are formed. A mulching lawn mower can take care of these leaves and the lawns simultaneously. The shredded leaves can also serve as an excellent fertilizer that serves as an excellent organic material for the grass.
Additional leaves to keep an eye out for
Additionally, there are certain leaves that require greater attention than others. For example, leaves from an Oak tree are quite large in their size and will definitely lead to the problems mentioned while leaves that are relatively smaller won’t cause that much harm if taken care of regularly.