 | Justin Cawyer is the CEO of American Lawn & Landscape Inc., and has been in the landscape industry for 22 years. Starting out as a mowing service, their business has expanded to include everything from landscaping to fertilizing and weed control. For a complete list of services, you can see their ad in Names and Numbers, visit yardsbyamerican.com, or call 620-249-5700. |
Lawn, Garden & Landscaping
2013-01-02 14:43:34
If you do anything this winter, remove the leaves!
A-As we briefly touched on last month, if you do only one thing to prepare your yard for winter, rake the leaves. Leaves can smother the grass, turning it to a dirt patch over the winter months. If the winter is unusually warm or overly wet, the leaves can rot and breed bacteria that can damage the lawn and other plants in the area.
We have many deciduous trees here in Southeast Kansas. When the weather changes (as it already has), deciduous trees go through a unique process that can be very beautiful and also very frustrating to say the least. Unlike coniferous trees (which keep their needles or leaves throughout the cold winter months) deciduous trees actually shed their leaves and enter a dormant state. In other words, the tree stops producing chlorophyll which gives leaves their green coloring. In most cases the leaves then turn brilliant shades of red, orange or yellow. Eventually they fall from the tree, leaving the branches bare and your yard blanketed in dead, crunchy leaves.
Because the leaves of a tree are its only source of energy and nutrients, most trees produce hundreds, and in many cases thousands of leaves. Raking all these leaves can take many days of hard labor. Homes with large trees surrounding it may be covered in a blanket of tens of thousands of dead leaves. These leaves all must be removed from lawns before the winter weather sets in. If you are using a traditional rake, you will be knee deep in leaves for hours. Raking leaves into piles is further complicated by the gusts of wind that are associated with our Southeast Kansas weather. Gusts of wind often demolish your recently raked pile and hours of work.
Your lawn can become saturated with moisture in the winter months, considering these leaves aren’t removed. This excess moisture can cause rot or fungus growth in your lawn which can completely destroy your crop of grass. Hiring a professional to remove the leaves on your lawn will require no time or effort on your part, and it can help you to maintain a healthy lawn throughout the winter and into the spring. When in doubt, talk to a professional.
