Leaves

Leaves

Aug 11

This is the week that leaves begin to gently drop from the trees onto our lawns. This is part of the giant recycling system of the earth. The leaves, which consist of carbon, nitrogen and water, will eventually break down into a fine layer of nutrients for your lawn. Despite this great benefit, many Tulsans will rake leaves into plastic bags and put them at the curb for the trash man to take them away.

My goal is to convince those citizens to stop that wasteful habit. First of all, the bags cost money. Secondly, the trash trucks fill up faster than during the rest of the year which means more trips to the landfill. More truckloads mean more air pollution and wear and tear on our roads plus, filling up the landfill sooner. These two measures combine to cause trash rates to rise, even for those of us who don’t foolishly follow this bad behavior.

But we feel pressure to do something with all those leaves. We can’t just let Mother Nature do her magic because the leaves may cover up and hurt our carefully manicured lawns. What would the neighbors say if our leaves blew into their lawn? We have to do something. Well, there is something you can do with all those leaves that keeps our lawns neat, makes our neighbors happy and doesn’t waste valuable resources.

Just mow over them a few times. Start up that mower and grind them up. If you run over them a couple of times, the leaves will break down into small pieces that will amazingly disappear. You don’t need a special mulching blade on your mower, but it helps. All a mulching blade does is chop them a little more efficiently, but an extra pass with the mower will make up the difference.

If all this sounds like too much work, go ahead and rake into a pile but avoid the plastic bag. Just find a spot near a fence and make a pile. The leaves naturally compost and you will have wonderful new soil to use in the spring. You don’t need any enclosure, but it helps. For compost bin designs that you can make yourself, go to our website at www.metrecycle.com. Our leaves don’t belong in the trash. They are more valuable than trash and can be used by you to make a better lawn, garden and planet.