Should You Rake Leaves or Just Leave Them?

The colorful fall leaves inspire everything from poetry to the holidays, but ultimately all the fallen leaves contribute to household chores. In fall, leaves fall from trees every minute, while winter winds trap loose leaves under bushes and in the corners of your yard.

Spring brings evergreen showers, along with the remnants of fall. Is dragging sheets and taking them to the landfill really the best course of action? Every year as fall sets in and temperatures and leaves begin to fall, homeowners are left with the same question: what do I do with all the leaves that are now scattered across my lawn?

Traditionally, it is common practice for people to collect leaves in piles, bag them, and then take them to the local landfill. But is sweeping up the leaves and taking them to a landfill really best for your garden and the environment?

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What is the purpose of raking leaves?

Here's the idea behind sweeping the leaves: If left to sit all winter, they'll turn into a moldy mush that will choke your lawn and keep it from growing strong again next spring.

This is true: leaving a thick layer of leaves on your lawn during winter is bad for your lawn. Organizing the leaves and bagging them is certainly an effective way to prevent all of this from happening. However, it turns out that it may not be the best thing to do.

Could raking off the leaves be a bad idea?

The act of sweeping the leaves is not the problem. It's what you do with the leaves after you collect them that can be problematic. If you tend to take leafy garbage bags to your local landfill, it might be a good idea to reconsider.

"The worst thing you can do is put (sheets) in bags and send them to landfills," David Mizejewski, a naturalist for the National Wildlife Federation, told the Providence Journal in 2020.

Sheets in landfills take up a ton of unnecessary space. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than ten percent of the garbage dumped in the US in 2018 was garden shavings. To make matters worse, as leaves from landfills shed, they combine with other organic materials to create methane, an environmentally harmful greenhouse gas.

So if you can't throw your sheets away, what can you do with them? Well, burning them is also not good for a few reasons. First, it is banned in many areas due to concerns about wildfires. Second, the burned leaves send particles into the air that the EPA says can lodge in people's lungs and cause breathing problems, heart rate irregularities, and even heart attacks.

What is the best way to get rid of leaves?

Mulching and/or composting the leaves is the best course of action for the health of your lawn and the environment. If you stack the leaves together, collect them and use them as a base in your compost bin.

Composting will turn the leaves into something you can actually use in your garden, rather than leaving them to rot in the landfill. Many municipalities have composting programs. You can take them to a compost site or leave them on the sidewalk and the city will do it for you. Check with your municipality for details.

However, cleaning is not necessary, especially if it is only a thin layer of leaves. Simply go over the leaves with the lawnmower and collect the clippings. Dried, chopped leaves make an excellent mulch.

You can even run the lawnmower over the leaves and leave them in the garden all winter long. As long as it's not a very thick layer (you don't want to smother the grass, remember), the cut leaves will serve as a natural fertilizer. This will help your lawn look healthy and vibrant when it grows back next spring.