Autumn is the time of a red carpet of fallen foliage, which everyone is collected with a rake or more technical garden instruments, and later exported as garbage. You know what we see when a pile of leaves is taken away? The loss of the money that you will invest in fertilizers for the garden next year.
Why is the foliage important for the garden? It’s simple. When it hits the soil, the leaves add nutrients to it, including phosphorus and potassium. They increase microbial activity in the kidney and increase its ability to retain water. Leaves also improve soil structure. And all this is free, but how to use foliage for their own purposes correctly? Here are the advice to you.
Use the lawn mower on the lawn without cleaning the foliage from the lawn. Crushed leaves and mowed grass together will give soil carbon and nitrogen, reducing the need to purchase additives and fertilizers later. Just use a mower. If a mower with a bag, then remove it and direct the discharge gutter to the lawn so that the crushed leaves and grass fall on it, and not on the roadway or sidewalk. If the leaves are cut into too large pieces, then make another passage to the lawn mower. Crushed leaves should not lie below than two centimeters from the ground. During the winter, they will break up on the basis.
You can also mix the leaves (crushed or not) into a compost pile where they will be decomposed in winter.
The worst that you can do with autumn foliage is its burning. Burning foliage is not only dangerous by fires, but also pollutes the air, creating problems.