Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. To a lot of folks, some of the best fall memories include raking and jumping in huge piles of leaves before squeezing them into bags and placing them by the curb to be hauled off to the landfill. Some folks are old enough to remember when burning leaves was standard practice. These days, however, neither is
looked upon with approving eyes. Raking, bagging, and hauling leaves away might make your yard look like a show place, but it's no longer considered environmentally friendly. Why Well, like we said, those lawn refuse bags go to the landfill, and according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, in yard trimmings accounted for thirty four point seven million tons of
municipal solid waste. The majority of that one point three million tons was recovered and composted or mulched in state programs, but ten point eight million tons still went to the landfill. That's more than eight percent of total waste generated. However, if you have a lawn that you want to maintain, getting rid of the fallen leaves is essential, because not only will wet leaves smothering kill the grass. They can
also prevent new growth from taking hold come springtime. So what are you to do rather than raking and bagging? The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Service suggests mowing the leaves with a multure instead. A multure is a machine similar to a lawnmower and that it cuts grass as you pushed along, except it has specialized blades that keep chopping the clippings into very fine pieces. By mulching dry leaves, which essentially shreds them into dime sized pieces,
you've created free food for your yard. The tiny pieces of shredded leaves will filter down between the blades of grass and add vital nutrients like nitrogen back to the soil. The ideal time to mulch the leaves is when you can see the blades of grass start poking through the blanket of leaves. That may mean weakly mulchings depending on the size of your yard and the number of trees.
You don't want to completely cover your lawn with a thick layer of mulch, though, so if the leaves get too heavy, rake the extra ones in a pile and then spread them around your trees or shrubs. In addition to adding back nutrients, mulching your garden has other benefits. It helps keep weeds at bay, holds moisture in the soil, and helps moderate soil temperatures. Your lawn, trees, shrubs, and the environment will thank you for mulching instead of raking
the leaves. Some cities and municipalities have stopped picking up bagged yard clippings altogether, including leaves, because of the cost and environmental concerns. Rather than continuing to raise taxes for garbage pickup, they've offered mulching workshops and called on homeowners to invest money into multures or mulching blades for lawnmowers so that they can beautify their yards with homegrown mulch like yard confetti. Today's episode was written by Patty Rasmussen
and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radios Has Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other nutrient rich topics, visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.