MISSOURI, USA — Thousands of St. Louisians deprive their lawns, landscaping and gardens of essential nutrients every year without even knowing it.
Unlike money, an easy fix does grow on trees.
Leaves make their way from tree canopies to the ground every autumn and every year thousands rake them up, throw them into garbage bags and send them off to the dump. What people don't know is that the dead leaves can improve gardens, fortify trees and provide nutrients to grass.
"What a waste," said Louise Belt from Missouri Conservationist in 1995. "Leaves make great fertilizer and wonderful mulch. They build topsoil or humus. It's a simple formula: year after year, the trees shed the materials you need to make your yard or garden more beautiful. All you have to do is use them."
There is an art to the process. Dead leaves will decompose and provide nutrients to soil and plant roots, but too many piled up on top of plants may block out light and kill the vegetation buried underneath.
"If you mulch them up with a lawn mower or crush them up some other way, it's actually a good thing," said Dan Zarlenga, a media specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation. "Multched-up leaves are able to provide enough light to the grass to prevent it from dying, but will still, as they decompose, provide nutrients for the grass."
Belt broke down many facts and myths about reusing leaves back in 1995, including oak leaves not being too acidic for gardens, bark mulch not being superior to leaf mulch, and why you shouldn't keep dead leaves in bags until spring.
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