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Mulching leaves with a mower would deal with them just fine in many cases. The landscaper in the article doesn't need to cancel all of his fall cleanup contract

• xoa 3y ago
  >Areas with dense oak trees however, might have so many leaves mulching would choke out the grass. Surprisingly not, it's actually pretty amazing how massive blankets of dried fallen leaves will get chomped down into a tiny tiny thin layer of powder when mulching, at least when using a sufficiently powerful mower to do a good job of it. I've got maybe 50 acres, mostly dense forest with lots of oaks/maples and then some lawn (more regularly mowed hay field) around main buildings. Before I had one I used to rake (or eventually blow) up leaves and cart them off leaving only some. Getting a quality mulching setup was a revelation (for leave and grass too for that matter). Better for the environment, less messy, and more convenient. Still use an (electric) blower though to gather leaves onto lawn areas from other places for mulching, and in some cases to help spread the leaves out beyond the areas near forest so that they'll add nutrients elsewhere. But once everything is piled as I want onto lawn can just mulch it, though everything in the hay fields can just sit over the winter of course. So I think there really is no downside, it's all upside, and it can all be electric as well. Just a matter of putting the pieces together with the right incentives, which is something that looks plenty politically feasible.