Utah winters can be long, cold, and snowy, especially if you live at the mouth of Utah canyons or anywhere along the Wasatch Front. It’s important to think about how to care for your lawn even throughout the winter months.
There has been a lot of debate lately about whether it is better to leave the fall leaves on your lawn all winter and clean them up in the spring or clean them off your lawn in the fall.
Here at Lawn Doctor, we’ve taken the time to do the research and give you the answers you’re looking for.
The short answer is that it depends.
If There Are Just a Few Leaves
If you have very few leaves falling from trees in your yard onto your lawn, it’s okay to leave them. The leaves will break down and provide great nutrients that can actually be beneficial to your lawn. Leaving a few leaves is no problem.
If There Are a Lot of Leaves
Too many leaves can actually create a thick layer and smother your lawn. Too many leaves would mean that the layer is so thick that you can’t see any grass between the leaves at all. In that case, you should rake them up and remove them. Again, it is okay to leave some because they will break down on their own and provide nutrients to the lawn.
If the Amount of Leaves Falls Somewhere in Between
In the case of there being more than a few leaves on the lawn but not so many that you can’t see the lawn, you can still leave them if you can help break them down. Simply run the lawn mower over them to help get the breakdown started, and then you’re good to leave them so that the leaves break down further and provide nutrients to the lawn.
Even though you are no longer mowing your grass in the late fall and winter, it’s still important to think about what you can do now to have a green lawn next spring and summer. One more consideration when it comes to raking leaves is making sure you are not allowing leaves with disease to sit on the lawn all winter that could spread to the lawn. If you have diseased trees, you should be sure to remove the leaves from your lawn to keep your lawn disease-free all winter long.
