Wait! Don’t bag the leaves!

After the hard freeze we had a couple of weeks ago, now the leaves have really started to fall. If the wind doesn’t blow them into your neighbor’s yard or into Kansas, then they start accumulating on your lawn.

Leaves are valuable fertilizer. The trees have been actively photosynthesizing all summer. The leaves still have some beneficial nutrition to them. They have a lot of trace minerals in them. In fact, up to 21 trace minerals to be exact. Some such as zinc, iron and manganese that play a vital role in photosynthesis. When a plant has iron deficiency, then you see yellowing leaves with green veins and a lack of vigor to the plant. This usually occurs in soils that are alkaline. These minerals will quickly be leached out shortly after they fall. The trace minerals are as important as the major minerals such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.

Take out your mower on a dry day and mow over the leaves. The leaves will be brittle enough to break apart into smaller pieces. Pieces that won’t end up smothering your lawn. These pieces will decompose into the soil over winter.

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