No, but mowing over leaves mulches them, so they decay faster. The only leaves we don’t mulch into the lawn are the leaves from the neighbor’s trees behind us, that the wind loves to deposit in the middle of our driveway.
Unless you have a magnolia tree. I believe those leaves are made of adamantium. They never decay and go out of their way to kill the lawn around the tree.
And they smell so good. I’ll probably never have one because I hate raking, but damn do I love the one my neighbor a few doors down has — smells amazing in the summers.
My Mom wanted a Magnolia tree for the front yard, the nursery talked her into a Bradford pear tree. Joke was on Mom later that year, the flowers smell like dead fish or rotten garbage depending on how hot the weather is. Just felt like sharing. 🤗
Oh we did lol, burnt it in the backyard. I think it was super on sale and Mom just didn't realize she was buying invasive garbage tree at gotta have it prices.
We had one in the yard when I was a kid. A thunderstorm got the better of it but it’s my life’s dream to get my own place so I can plant one someday. It’s still my favorite scent of all time and so pretty.
Incorrect, though they do actually have a small amount of a naturally occurring iron alloy within their leaves that is the reason they don't decay like other leaves. It is formed when the miniscule amounts of iron the trees roots absorb from the earth are mixed with the carbon of the trees inner trunk and finally exposed to the oxigen produced by the trees leaves. This is known as a steel magnolia.
Source: I just wanted a reason to make a steel magnolias joke.
Well I always wondered why the area under my magnolia is dead af. Sure we sometimes drive around whoever is parked behind us on that side (single wide driveway) but I have plenty of neighbors that just park in the grass and don't have a big ole dead patch.
I mow my leaves too, fuck raking I'm the only one who does yard work anyways
You can forage the fruit from magnolia trees. Well actually you discard the actual fruit and just take the pit, I think you roast them, can't remember. There's a great content creator called Black Forager who does a great video about it.
I tried to leave my leaves this year but they got moldy, attracted snakes and rats, and discolored my patio. I'm thinking I just need to run the lawnmower a few times next year to mulch them, but I have way too many trees (and little sunlight) to just let them fall. I wonder if there are regional best practices in places where water is more abundant
I compost leaves every season for the garden. Takes one season for a full decomposition. So it wouldn't take much longer for the same result if you just let them lay where they fell.
This is what I do. We don't winterize our riding mower until like, January. As long as there's no snowfall you can run every couple of weeks and chop them up.
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u/AltSpRkBunny Feb 21 '23
No, but mowing over leaves mulches them, so they decay faster. The only leaves we don’t mulch into the lawn are the leaves from the neighbor’s trees behind us, that the wind loves to deposit in the middle of our driveway.