27 Oct Do Fallen Leaves Make Good Lawn Fertilizer?

During the autumn season, you are going to see a lot of leaves falling to the ground in New England. Many people are wondering if these fallen leaves can be used as a good lawn fertilizer. However, some other people don’t believe that these leaves can bring benefits to the soil. There are some debates about the uses of fallen leaves for the soil. Before you start using these fallen leaves, you are going to need to read this article completely. We are going to discuss some important things behind these fallen leaves and their impact on your lawn. There are some important things that you need to know about this debate.

Leaves cannot provide enough nutrients for plants

This is the first thing that you need to know about fallen leaves. These leaves usually fall from the trees because they don’t have enough nutrients to stay intact to the branches. These fallen leaves don’t provide enough nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium for your lawn. These nutrients are very beneficial for many plants and grass to grow well. Without any of these nutrients, these fallen leaves will never bring any benefits for your lawn. In most cases, you will never be able to find any useful nutrients from these leaves.

Decomposing leaves on the ground will make the soil more acidic. This is another bad thing about using leaves as a lawn fertilizer. You need to understand that the acidic soil is not good for growing many plants other than just your green lawn. There are only a few acidic-soil-loving plants that you can plant in this soil, for example, raspberries, potatoes, peanuts, blackberries, sweet potatoes, etc. Other plants cannot grow well in an acidic environment. If you want to encourage plants to grow on your soil, you should avoid using fallen leaves as a lawn fertilizer.

You can still make fallen leaves a great compost

If you still believe that fallen leaves can bring benefits to your soil, you still need to turn the leaves into compost. There are some important steps that you have to do, especially if you want to use these leaves as a good lawn fertilizer. It is a good idea for you to combine several products for making the compost, for example, food scraps, lawn clippings, and any other organic materials. The combination of these materials can create a natural nitrogen-rich fertilizer for your garden and your lawn.

For speeding up the composting process, you can shred the fallen leaves before adding them to the mixture. You can use any device, such as a shredder, mulcher, or lawnmower for shredding the leaves. After 6 months or more, you will be able to get the compost ready. The compost can be added to the gardens, lawns, and also flower beds. When you add compost to the lawn, you should avoid spreading higher than 0.5 inches of compost on the lawn at a time. Adding too much compost will damage the grass immediately. For getting a better result, you can aerate your lawn first.

Have your yard maintained and fertilized all year round

Although you can make your compost, you still need to consider maintaining and fertilizing your yard all year round. Complete lawn care is very useful to help you prepare the soil, so you can grow anything in your yard. Fertilizing your lawn properly can maintain the color of your plants, so they can improve the overall look of your outdoor area on your property. Different types of plants are going to require different nutrients to grow well in your yard. Nitrogen can be considered as one of the most important nutrients for your plant.

It is also a good idea for you to maintain your yard, so you can encourage plant growth on your soil. Don’t forget to remove any weeds that may grow on your lawn. These weeds are going to compete with your plants for getting water, sunlight, nutrients, and also space on the soil. You can hire the best professional lawn care experts who know how to take care of your garden. They usually have a lot of expertise and experience in maintaining your garden. They can help you grow any of your favorite plants in your garden.