4 Best Ways To Use Fall Leaves In Your Garden

The tree leaves that accumulate around your yard or garden can be a valuable natural resource for you to use because they provide a good source of organic matter and nutrients.

Leaves don't always seem like a good thing however, especially when you have a lot of raking to do, but if you can, be thankful and hang on to your leaves.

Leaves contain 50 to 80 percent of the nutrients a plant extracts from the soil and air during the season, so if you can, use and recycle your leaves around your property rather than raking them up and throwing them away.

Here are 4 of the best ways to use leaves in your yard, garden, or landscape:

1. Leaf Uses - Mowing
Mowing leaves that have fallen on your lawn area is most effective when a mulching mower is used, but if the leaf drop is light, a regular mower will work just fine. In fact, during times of light leaf drop, or if there are only a few small trees in your yard, simply leave the shredded leaves in place on the lawn. They will act as a beneficial mulch and compost and will help your lawn.

2. Leaf Uses - Mulching
Leaves can be used as mulch in vegetable gardens, flower beds and around shrubs and trees. The best way is to rake the leaves into a pile and then shred them with your lawn mower or a shredder if you have one.

It you have the option, use a lawn mower with a bagging attachment because it is a fast and easy way to shred and collect the leaves. Leaves that have been mowed or run through some other type of shredder will decompose faster

Leaves that are not shredded won't decompose as well and will only smother what they are put on. Try and never let leaves remain on a lawn without raking them up or they can smother the grass underneath.

• Apply a 3 to 6 inch (7.5 to 15 cm) layer of shredded leaves around the base of trees and shrubs making sure not to put any right up against the trunk or main stem of trees or shrubs.
  
  
• In annual and perennial flower beds, a 2 to 3 inch (5 to 7.5 cm) mulch of shredded leaves is good.
  
  
• For vegetable gardens, a thick layer of leaves placed in between the rows work both as a mulch and as an all-weather walkway that will allow you to work in your garden during wet periods.

3. Leaf Uses - Soil Improvement
Leaves that have been raked and shredded can be worked directly into your garden and flower beds. A 6 to 8 inch (15 to 20 cm) layer of leaves tilled into a heavy, clay soil will improve aeration and drainage. The same amount worked into a light, sandy soil, will improve water and nutrient holding capacity.

Note: A basic strategy for using leaves to improve soil in vegetable gardens and annual planting beds is to collect and work them into the soil during the fall. This allows sufficient time for the leaves to decompose prior to spring planting. Adding a little fertilizer to the soil after working in the leaves will hasten their decomposition.

4. Leaf Uses - Composting
Leaves are great to add to your compost pile or bin. Once again, shredding them first will help them decompose faster, but whole leaves can be added in as well.

Other Helpful Articles:

The Complete Guide To Mulch

Mulching - How Much and How Deep?

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

Spring Lawn Mowing

Mowing Your Lawn In The Spring

When the weather begins to warm up, your lawn will start to grow as well, but don't rush out with your lawn mower just yet.

It's best to wait to give your lawn that first spring mowing until the grass has grown at least 2 inches (5 cm) or more tall.

This is because the roots are growing and renewing as well, and the grass needs vigorous top growth initially to get off to a healthy start.

As soon as your lawn has reached 2 inches (5 cm) or more in height you can start mowing again. But remember the rule of thumb: Never remove more than a third of the grass blade at any one time.

For example: If you have a bluegrass lawn which does best with a 2 inch (5 cm) cut, then let it grow to 3 inches (7.5 cm) tall and then cut it back by 1 inch (2.5 cm) to get the grass back to optimum height.

More Lawn Care Articles:

How High To Mow Your Lawn

Grow a Green, Lush Lawn - Part 1
Choosing the best grass variety for your area

Grow a Green, Lush Lawn - Part 2
Patching, Overseeding or Starting a New Lawn

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

Have great week!

Weeds Going - Going - Gone!

Whew! My project is complete!

And.... Look at how much better it looks! I can't believe it!

It really didn't take long. I am so pleased with how nice the yard looks without any broadleaf weeds.

Everything is filling in very nicely, and with the extra compost I added, the lawn is really looking happy.

I think too, it was a good example to show just how easily the whole process can be, getting rid of broadleaf weeds in your lawn, by doing it all with organic products.

Of course now with all this scrutiny, I realize how ragged the ends of the grass blades are getting, so now I need to sharpen the blades on my mower.

Luckily I know how to do that, and in fact, I just wrote an article on How to Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades!

That's the fun thing about the green industry there is always something new to learn, try, or share with others.

Next week I have a really cool new gardening idea I want to share with everyone. I think you'll want to try it out.

Have a great week.

Boradleaf Weeds Almost Gone!

Well it's looking much better now!

This week I raked up all the dead weeds and grass. Gave the lawn a quick mow and then put down about 1/4 inch of compost.

I decided to overseed with what I originally seeded the lawn with, and that was a blue-fescue mix.

It does well on the coast here, and I like the texture of the lawn, when it isn't full of weeds that is!

Because I am overseeding, you can see some of the old lawn poking through, but the new seed should start to germinate pretty quickly. The weather has been unusually warm here on the coast, so I expect to see my bare "patches" filling in sooner that if we had been having our normal foggy, cool, summer.

Overall, I am glad to be almost done, because I am eager, and anxious, to see how weed free I can keep my lawn from here on out!

Till next week..... when I should have pictures of my new lawn starting to fill in!

Broadleaf Weeds in my Lawn - Week 3!

Week 3 of the battle against my Oxalis Weeds continues.

Wow, here is the picture of the Oxalis weeds 24 hours after spraying them with the Organic product, Burnout. This is a non-selective herbicide so it did get some of my grass too, but since I plan on overseeding, I'm not terribly worried.

This weekend I am going to give it a good raking and pull up a lot of the dead material and then lay down about 1/4 inch of compost and give it a good watering.

Next week I am going to overseed with fresh lawn seed. Originally I had a blue-fescue mix, but I'm going to see what has come out in the last few years that might be better.

I have to laugh because a about 2 years ago I read an article and it said that it was easier to move, than to get rid of Oxalis. While I haven't found it that hard, I do regret not staying on top of the situation and letting it get this bad!

But with the price of real estate these days, moving is not an option!

Talk to you soon -

Getting Rid of Broadleaf Weeds - Continued

Ok, it's now week 2 and I have finally decided on what I am going to use to get rid of my Oxalis weeds! It took me some time, because I wanted to use an organic herbicide.

In the past, I have used chemical based herbicides, simply from habit, but in the last few years, I am really getting more and more convinced of the organic way.

I have tried many organic products: pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides, and have been very pleased with the outcome. Organic products have gotten better and better, and there is no reason not to use them.

For this problem, I am going to use BurnOut, a product sold by Plant Natural. The problem, it is NON-selective, so it will kill some of my grass around the weeds too, but since I plan to overseed, when I am done, I am not terribly concerned about a little overlap onto the grass.

Because I live in a cool area, I will spray around noon to 2 pm, the warmest part of the day here, to help the weed killer along.

I'll have pictures next week to show my progress!

See you next week!

Lawn Weeds - Oxalis Weeds in My Lawn!

All right. I hate to admit it, but my front lawn has been taken over in parts by Oxalis weeds. It is also called Yelllow Woodsorrel, but I just call it ugly.

Plus, on top of that, I am pretty sure I have myself to blame for it getting into my front yard to begin with. Yes, I do live in a windy area, and seeds could have easily come in that way, or a dozen other ways, namely my neighbor's weed patch next door, but I think I spread it from the backyard to the front myself.

I know to clean my lawn mower blades and its underside after I mow the back, and before I mow the front because pieces of weeds will cling and drop off, but seriously, who is going to do that when you're in the middle of Saturday yard work?

I also know better, and should have been keeping up with simple hand weeding when I noticed the first small patch take hold. But I didn't. I also know that if I had been composting my lawn a few more times a year, and given it more nutrients, it would not have been so readily taken over. But these things are hindsight. No whining, I need to address the problem at hand. Stiff upper lip and all that you know?

So, since I have the problem, I am going to post my weekly saga as I battle my Oxalis lawn weeds. After all, I bet you've had this problem at least once in your life, and now is a good time to do it; while the weeds are actively growing. Plus, it will be interesting to see who wins!

Stay tuned folks!