Three Ways to Use Autumn Leaves

Colorful background of fallen autumn leaves

Colorful background of fallen autumn leaves

Up here in Wisconsin, we’re blessed with a rich burst of color when autumn rolls around. There’s nothing lovelier than the blends of reds, yellows and oranges from the maples, oaks and birches.

In fact, if you’re interested in taking a drive through our lovely state to take in autumn’s best, peak color is estimated for
the third week of October, according to Travel Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, there are all of the leaves in your yard to deal with. We’ve come up with three great ways to recycle those leaves, resulting in a healthier yard or garden for next year.

Composting

This one’s a given. Leaves make great brown, high-carbon material for your compost pile. All you have to do is rake them up, then alternate layers of leaves with layers of green material (vegetables, fruit scraps, lawn cuttings, and plants you’ve pulled from the garden for fall clean-up).

Though you can add them to the pile as they are, whole and mostly unbroken, it’s recommended that you chop or shred them in some way. A leaf vac, a chipper-shredder, or even a lawn mower will work very well in this manner.

Mow Them and Leave Them

And speaking of lawn mowers, this is another great way to handle all the leaves on the ground. Don’t bother raking them. Just put your mower up to its highest setting, and take a lawn mower to them.

The mower will shred the leaves into a very fine mulch that will stay on your grass, providing nutrients as they decompose through the winter. Shredding them to a fine texture will prevent suffocating and killing the grass too.

Mulching

For mulching, you will need to shred your leaves, but once you do, they’ll make a great addition to all of your flower beds, your garden, or for your plant containers. Anywhere that you’d put normal mulch, like that dyed red cypress stuff you can get at the hardware store, is a great place to put shredded leaves.

Here at A1 Fence we hope you have an awesome autumn! Don’t forget, we install fences until the ground freezes over. If you live in Mequon, Fox Point, or anywhere else in the Milwaukee metro area just give us a call for your free estimate today.

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