Charlie captured me following my own advice--in this instance, mulching leaves down at the Garland Community Garden!

Sometimes Solutions Can Be Simple!

Honest, I usually try out methods in the garden before I recommend them to others.  I've been intending to get down to the garden and mulch all those leaves we have been strewing everywhere for the past month.  Today I finally got down there and mulched all the leaves in the front of the garden.  If the weather holds out with no precipitation, I'll mulch the rest of them tomorrow.

It's fun to watch leaves turn to almost dirt.  You can purchase a mulching blade for most lawn mowers.  Charlie already had one for his Toro lawn mower so I just borrowed his.  However if anyone wants to donate a zero turn leaf mulching machine for the garden, I would be happy to accept it!

Mulching your leaves, as I mentioned in a previous article, solves many issues associated with keeping the perfect tidy lawn:

1. Those "unsightly" leaves disappear into the soil.

2.After three years of mulching you will no longer need to apply herbicides to your lawn to kill weeds such as dandelions.

3. You can save money and the environment by reducing the amount of fertilizer you need to keep your lawn healthy. 

Is mulching your leaves a totally environmentally sound solution?

No.  I am still using a gas-powered piece of lawn equipment. However, when measured against bagging leaves in plastic and hauling them off to the landfill in a gas guzzling truck, mulching leaves that fall in your yard is a better solution.

Get out there an mulch those leaves!  Don't sentence them to the landfill!