Leaves are not mulch.
The pile sitting on your lawn in October is doing something specific, and it is not feeding the grass. Here is what happens underneath it, and the two weeks that decide how the lawn comes out in spring.
Every fall somebody tells us they are leaving the leaves down because leaves are natural and the lawn will use them. Half of that is true. Leaves are natural, and shredded into a bed they are one of the best things you can put on soil. Left whole on top of turf, they do something different.
A layer of wet leaves is a lid. It holds moisture against the crown of the grass, it blocks the light the lawn needs in the one season it is actually storing energy, and it keeps the surface from drying between rains. Grass under that lid goes into winter soft and thin, and in a mild Richmond February it comes out with matted patches and disease pressure that were not there in September.
The distinction we make on a property is simple. Whole leaves on grass come off. Shredded leaves in beds stay, because there they are doing the job people think they are doing on the lawn.
The lawn does not mind leaves. It minds a lid.
The first light drop does not need a cleanup. Run the mower over it with the deck high and let it shred in place, and it feeds the soil. The rule we use is the one you can see: if you can still see grass through the leaves, mulch-mow them. Once you cannot, they have to come off, and waiting two more weekends is what turns a cleanup into a repair.
- GroundStill warm. Anything planted or seeded in the next few weeks is still rooting well into November most years.
- TimingThe heavy drop here usually runs from the middle of October into the first week of November. The yards that come out clean in spring get touched twice in that window, not once at the end.
- BookingFall cleanup routes get built in September. We start scheduling them mid-month, and the calendar is first come.
Two things are open right now, both built around the fall window.
- Fall plantings$15 off per plant installed and $30 off per tree installed, on jobs of $1,500 or more. Over $4,500, another 15% comes off.
- Patios and walkways15% off hardscape work of $10,000 or more, through September 30.
A walkthrough is free either way, and the fastest way onto the fall calendar is a phone call.
That's the ticket. See you in the yard.
Pamela and the YardMasters crew
Need us in your yard? Get a free estimate, or text the crew at (804) 744-4733.
Midlothian, VA · since 2009
