RADIO TRANSCRIPT
Date:  October 7, 2021
Agent:  Donna Teasley

Hello, this is Donna Teasley, horticulture agent with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Burke Center.

Fall is upon us and soon the trees will start losing their leaves. It’ll take some cool nights before that happens but it won’t be long. Removing fallen leaves from the lawn is an important task and one that shouldn’t be neglected. Fallen leaves can quickly kill out a lawn if they are allowed to stay on the ground. They can get quite heavy and the lawn just can’t take the weight of their continued presence. They also block out sunlight which is essential to a growing lawn.

No one likes to rake leaves so don’t! Mow them instead. Use a mulching blade on your lawn mower and chop up leaves instead of raking them. Now, you can’t wait until you get a six inch pile of leaves on the lawn before you start but a weekly mowing should do the trick. This turns spent leaves into organic material which is great for the lawn. Continue to mow until all of the leaves are off of your trees. If you prefer to bag your leaves when mowing, pile the chopped leaves up and create a compost pile. Compost is magical stuff for gardens. By next spring  your chopped leaves should be ready to spread around the garden.

So, you can see that dealing with fall leaves doesn’t have to be a terrible job. Just mow instead of rake!

This is Donna Teasley with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Burke Center. If you would like more information about this program you can call us at 764-9480.