Pros and Cons to Raking Your Lawn

When it comes to raking up fallen leaves during fall, everyone has a different opinion on the necessity of it. This is why we compiled a list of pros and cons to raking your lawn. By the end of this post, you will be able to make an informed decision on whether or not raking up those pesky leaves is the right decision for you.

Pros to Raking Your Lawn

Raking leaves offers many benefits to not only you, but your property as well. The biggest benefit of raking your lawn is that it will help your grass grow and flourish. A thick layer of leaves on your lawn can deprive it of sunlight, therefor keeping your lawn from being able to flourish.

Other benefits of raking your lawn include:

-Raking makes your property look neat and cared for
-You’ll eliminate lawn thatch (dead grass tissue above the soil) that is damaging to your lawn as you rake.
-You’ll reduce the amount of leaves that carry diseases that can affect surrounding plants and trees.
-Reduces any kind of fire hazard.

Having a healthy lawn does not depend on you hunting down and raking up every last leaf on your lawn. In fact, a few stray leaves (especially if you plan on mowing one last time) can actually help fertilize your lawn in the long run. Leaves are biodegradable and help add nutrients to your soil, it’s when you have a large surplus of leaves on your lawn that it can become a problem.

Cons to Raking Your Lawn

Feeling lazy and don’t want to rake this year? You might actually be doing the environment a favor in doing so. Like I was saying before, leaves contain essential nutrients for your soil. When left alone, they break down and return those nutrients to your soil and surrounding plants, helping them to flourish. Additionally, the coverage that the leaves provide preserves soil moisture and suppresses weeds.

The last reason to not rake your lawn, is birds and insects (such as moths and butterflies) depend on fallen leaves. Pupa take up residence in the leaves in the winter, so raking your lawn can kill the pupa and keep them from hatching later. Birds like to not only use fallen leaves and twigs to help build their nests, but they also like to raid the leaves to find food for their babies.

As you can see, there are many reasons to both rake, and to not rake your lawn. Hopefully now you can make an informed decision as to what is best for you and your lawn. So, Are you going to be raking your lawn this year?