I recently moved to a forested area in the PNW and this is my first time dealing with leaves in a non-trivial way. I want to mulch them in, but I worry that at some point it's just too much.
This pic is halfway done of the third time (once a week-ish) mulching this season. And there is more to come as the trees aren't bare yet. I'm just making two passes with a standard mower.
Any advice as to how much is too much and at what point I should just bag and toss it into my forest?
by Omnes87
19 Comments
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Never too much to mulch for me I just go over it twice.
Mow it until you can see the grass again. Change directions to avoid ruts
No such thing.
Do multiple passes.
Just follow this sub.. scroll up to a similar post 20 minutes ago, or a little further back to 45 minutes ago. Answer will be there.
As long as it’s not matted down and killing/ blocking your grass from sunlight. If that’s what you mean. But if you don’t care about your grass dying then there can really never be too much
That’s too much leaf mulch in my opinion. It looks like it’s overtaking the grass which then prevents the grass from getting light. I love to mulch my leaves, but wouldn’t let this much be on my grass.
Maybe try going over it again to see if your mower shreds it further?
As long as you can easily see the grass, you are ok. I do the same thing with my mower. Better than hand blowing. It takes a lot of leaves to cause issues.
I would lead blow some and then mulch
At a certain point it can be too much. The mulch can start to smother the grass if it builds up too fast and too thick. I don’t think you’re there yet though, or even close for that matter. I usually only see that where there’s just mountains of leaves, and in most cases that’s also in areas where it’s too shady most of the year for lush grass anyways.
If you cover 75% of the grass with mulch, as it looks in the picture, you are cutting 75% of its food and growth. That’s too much imo.
If you feel it’s too much, it probably is. No need to smother out your grass. Looks like you got some woods there, use it. Mulch up what you can till you can’t anymore, then blow the excess into the woods.
I would cut those down a couple more times, get those leaves as close to dust as possible. The other option, can you blow the leaves into the woods?
I have always mulched about half my seasonal leaves. I mulch the ones that are there when I still need to mow also. I’ve never had any problems. The rest get blown to the street where the city picks them up. The leaves on the right in the picture above where you’ve mowed need to be mulched more. I never leave them looking like that. I’d go back over them prolly 1 or 2 more times to thin them out. You want smaller pieces. And, if I can still see lines or clusters of them after that, I’ll quickly wave the backpack blower around to spread them out some.
Just keep mowing over it and go in cross direction. Just gotta get it to the point where it’s small enough
That’s a good amount, just don’t let the mulch layer get thicker than about 3 inches, or it’ll block air and water.
If you can still see some grass through it after mowing, you’re fine. Once it mats down or feels soggy, time to bag the rest and toss it in the woods.
Just keep swimming (mulching) until green. Your grass will thank you. Free organic matter for your lawn/soil.
I’ve mulched more than what you are showing on the left, but once I’m done mine doesn’t look like yours on the right. I make multiple passes and switch directions. If I do get a row or two that clump then I’ll put the bagger on and go over the row to pick some up. Been doing it this way for several years without any issue.
Job ain’t finished.