Fall Leaves

Fall has finally arrived here in Kentucky. The trees are turning and the leaves are falling. It is time to talk about fall raking. First, raking leaves can be great exercise. Who needs a gym when there are leaves to rake? Leaf blowers pollute the air with their noise and fumes. There are many ways to dispose of leaves besides sending them to the landfill. Here in Lexington and many other places, you can put them in your yard waste container. If there is not enough room, you can put them in paper yard waste bags (in Lexington they give you coupons to get some for free) and then put them out at the curve.

At our house, we use the leaves for many things. We put them in with the chickens. They love scratching through them and finding all the treasures hidden in them. They can break down a pile of leaves in a just a few days. This provides compost for the garden. We also pile leaves around our delicate plants that need a little bit more winter protection. Leaves are also put on the garden to be rototilled into the soil so they can break down before spring planting season. We also will pile leaves in areas that we want to kill off the grass or plants to create new flower beds. The rest of the leaves go into the compost pile to be broken down into rich compost for the garden. Areas in our yard with just a few leaves are simply mowed into the grass when we mow for the last time in the fall. Fall leaves have a lot of uses besides just sending them to the landfill. Try some of them this year and I am sure you will find more uses of your own.