Why rake leaves?

Okay, I’m lazy. But it seems to me that the leaves covering my lawn (which are covering up a pretty bad lawn after a couple of drought years) would serve as a nice natural mulch, keeping moisture in and protecting against cold. I’ll be happy to rake up what’s left of them in the spring.

But everybody here (and everywhere) rakes their leaves diligently. Is there a good reason for this, or is it just appearances?

It could kill the grass. But what I do is to just mow, which does turn allow the leaves to serve as a good mulch but in such small pieces it won’t keep the sunlight from the grass. However, I only have four small trees, so it’s not that many leaves. If you have a lot more leaves than I do, that won’t be a good option for you.

I’ve heard the rotting leaves can encourage insects that could get into your house, as well as detrimental plant diseases and fungi that could damage your lawn.

I agree with you. I never rake. Leaves are nature’s fertilizer. But if I’m wrong and they kill the grass, I don’t mind that either… I hate to mow.

Because it’s What You Do in suburbia. Just like growing grass is - when my dad was a child as a tenant farmer in rural Georgia (b. 1932) if a blade of grass had the temerity to grow in your dooryard you went out and murdered that little upstart. Meant you were lazy or something.

Of course, now he’s a total petty grass dictator. I still remember the year everybody’s Centipede died off and he had us dig it up ourselves and replace it with screaming horror.

And then the next year we had to dig some of it up again in a freaking belzer curve for a sidewalk. When I get a house, I’m getting the one with the smallest yard possible and then paving that bitch.

Leaves piled on the grass do encourage mold rot. I’ve seen it happen many times.

They also provide protection for mosquito larvae.

They can also attract grubs, which can attract mole.

Narure’s Fertilizer?

Points to Ponder?
Natural grass lands do not have trees.
Natural forests do not have grass!

Well by golly, I guess you are right! Now, if only it would kick in and kill my damn grass! :smiley:

Minor nitpick but most natural grasslands do have trees. They’re what are known as savannas. Take a look at some pictures of the grasslands of Africa for example and note the number of trees growing there. Although there are a couple of exceptions it is primarily the unnaturla grasslands that have been disturbed by constant human burning that lack trees altogether over significant areas.

Well if you use a mulchng mower for grass, the nutriant # (the x,y,z you see on fertalizer) seems to be lacking a particular number, which for some unearthly reason leaves seem to provide to produce a balenced mulch. I guess this proves there is a God, and He uses a mulching mover.

Anyway I mulch-mow them.

Never mind the moles. You should see the damage a skunk will do, digging for grubs.

I have enough leaves to completely blanket the lawn and reduce it to black mushy dirt.

Without a well rooted lawn, I would have alot of erosion. Some neighbors have saw their driveways and patios sink because they didn’t maintain their properties.

Also, some sewer systems can become backed up with leaves and contribute to flash flooding.

Dry leaves are a fire hazzard sometimes.

Our leaves are collected by vacuum truck, composted and returned to the community, to further encourage healhty plant growth and neighborhoods rich in vegetation, and they reduce the use of urea based nitrogen fertilizers.

Savanahs don’t have lush, low growing evenly green grass. They have clumps of scruby grasses growing in patches, other plants in between the grass clumps with trees growing generally long paces apart. And they don’t have suburban deciduous trees growing in them, either.

A suburban yard is not a natural environment. It’s a very forced, artificial environment, so “nature’s rules” do not apply. Human intervention is needed to keep the artificial environment artificial-looking. Otherwise, you’ll end up with patchy grasses and other ground cover (like ground ivy or violets). And moles.

(Oh, and don’t do a Google image search for “Savanah” if your 11 year old is standing over your shoulder. Or your boss. :smack: )

I had a neighbor tell me that part of the reason I want to pick up leaves is because they are slightly acidic, and if that acid seeps into the soil I’ll eventually have poorer growth due to the ph balance. I can’t easily find anything on the internet now to support this, does anyone know for a fact that it is not true?

I use a leaf hog I bought for $50 to vacuum much of the leaves (I only have a lot in the back yard) and mulch-mow the rest. It takes me about an hour and half to do the backyard, and I think its a lot easier than raking or even using a leaf blower. Also it mulches the leaves into a bag so I can dispose of all my leaves for the year in one lawn and leaf bag.

I don’t know about ordinary leaves, but walnut leaves will kill the grass. Pine needles are so acidic that they should not be put into compost (they won’t rot properly anyway).

Oak leaves are most definitely not acidic, but I can’t vouch for other varieties.

Oak leaves contain considerable amounts of tannic acid. Why do you think they are not acidic?

Aside from all these scientific reasons, I have learned that, if you don’t rake, you will anger your neighbors because a) your lawn looks like crap (yes, you can be cited for that around here, and my landlord has been), and b) your leaves will blow onto their lovely mown lawns.

My front yard has a huge maple on it and is now above ankle-deep in leaves. It’s not my job to rake them and the lawn was mostly dead anyway from being in shade all the time, but it does look pretty crappy, if you care about that kind of thing. Which I don’t.