Southeast US
Moved into new home, been working on clearing up piled up area in corner of yard. Top of soil is a good 2-4” of leaves/sticks.
What’s a good way to clear this up / mulch? Can I run my John Deere s140 over this area a few times? Will the sticks damage the mower?
I don’t have woods – fully fences in yard. I’m burning everything that’s easy to pick up with my hands.
Should I burn all the leaves too?
by SupplyChainOne
23 Comments
Run it over
it will drastically reduce the lifespan of your blade, and it will likely jam because it will not cut the small braches very well.
short answer, no.
Those tiny twigs won’t hurt your mower.
Rake it to the dirt and bag it up and get rid of it. Stay on top of it and go around picking up any twigs branches before mowing. The grass can’t grow up through all that garbage anyways.
If you mulch that your yard is going to love it. I mulch that ish every spring, it’s free fertiliser.
It depends on your mower, too, tho.
The tiny branches and leaves I’d keep and run over with the mower. Anything approaching a real branch size say > eighth inch or so I’d pick those up first. Up to your local rules for removing yard waste.
Absolutely. Mulch it up big dog.
Yes mulch it up. All of it and use it later
I have a 19hp Troy Bilt and a run over twigs and leaves all the time with no issues. Obviously if you see something too thick like a half inch or more, pick it up. It’s free fertilizer for your grass. I do use some lawn lime, just incase it raises the acidity of the soil, especially after the amount of leaves I mulch in during the fall…..ymmv on that front.
Burn what is easy to pick up, mow the rest. Will it dull the blade? Yes. Most people don’t care. If you care about your lawn, sharpen your blade(s) at the beginning of the season, and about monthly afterwards or as needed if you inspect the mowed blades of grass and see tearing.
Do what is easiest for you. Your machine can handle anything reasonable.
Yes! But remember, your blades need to be replaced or sharpened more often. Watch out for those larger ones they become projectiles
Take a photo of your blades before and go for it! Let us know how they look afterwards.
That glove will be destroyed.
I mulch straight up branches. Just learn how to sharpen you blades or replace them every once in a while
Yes just did it today with my push mower
The worst that can happen, which I found out the hard way once, is a bigger one jams into a belt and pushes it off or jams it. Just remove it and keep mowing.
My push mower operates on a green rule of thumb. Green sticks from my willow tree thumb thickness or smaller get mowed. Sharpen the blade once a year and no complaints.
Shoot I’ve “accidentally” mulched stuff double that size
I do. Just run it over
My dad said as you get older it’s harder to bend over and pick them up, that’s when you realize how big of sticks you can mow😂😂
If it’s smaller than my finger it’s getting mulched.
You also do so with a push mower… mulch’em up!
Just be careful not to go over anything too big – larger ones can pull your drive belt off (or break it) which can be a pain in the rear to repair.