It’s that time of year again to start dealing with falling leaves from deciduous trees.

So now is a good time to think about your options and plan on how to handle the litter. Although scattering of the leaves won’t hurt the lawn, the excessive cover prevents sunlight from reaching the turfgrass plants. Turf left with excessive cover of leaves for an extended period of time will be unable to make the carbohydrates needed to carry it through the winter.

There are other ways in dealing with leaves other than bagging them up and putting them out for the trash collector. Composting is a great way to handle leaves. The compost then could be used in vegetable gardens or flower beds.

Another easy way to deal with the leaves is to direct incorporation in either vegetable garden or flowerbed. Use a mower with a bagging attachment to chop and collect the leaves. Transport to either your garden or flowerbed and spread out the leaves across the area 2-3 inches thick, then till them in repeat the process every couple weeks until you run out of leaves or the weather becomes too cold.

Another option is to mow the leaves with a mulching mower and let the leaves filter into the turf canopy. This option is most effective if you do it often, enough that the leaf litter doesn’t become too thick. Mow while you can still see the grass peeking through the leaves.

Some worry about whether or not this practice is detrimental to the lawn in the long run. Research done at Michigan State University in which they used a mulching mower to shred up to one pound of leaves per square yard of lawn for five consecutive years, found no long term effects of the shredded leaves on turf quality, thatch thickness, or soil test results (PH, nutrients, etc).

If you mow leaves and have a cool-season lawn it also makes sense to be on a fall nitrogen fertilizer program, and core aerate in the fall.

If you have a warm-season lawn, you can still use this technique just wait on fertilizing, and coreaerate until late May-early June.

If you have any additional questions or need more information, contact your local Midway District Extension horticulture agent, Craig Dinkel by e-mail at cadinkel@ksu.edu, or by phone at (785) 472-4442, or (785) 483-3157.