North Dakota: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Bag Your Leaves This Fall!

Leaves are falling from the trees and are filling up our yards. It's time to bust out the rake, and clean up the yard.

Most people bag up their leaves with garbage bags, but there's a problem with that.

According to NPR.org, wildlife experts say you should not bad up your leaves.

Why You Shouldn't Bag Your Leaves

I'm sure you're wondering why you shouldn't bag your leaves. After all, people have been doing this for a long time.

According to the source, 8 million tons of bagged leaves end up in landfills every year. If that's not reason enough to stop bagging your leaves, there are a few more you should consider.

1. Leaves Help The Grass

Leaves are full of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. According to the source, when leaves fall, it's returning the nutrients to the soil.

If you want to improve your soil health, you might want to leave the leaves alone.

2. Leaves Provide A Habitat For Insects

While you may not love slugs, spiders, and other creepy crawlies, they are a necessary part of an ecosystem and all contribute to the overall environment.

Aside from insects, they may also provide a habitat for turtles, toads and small mammals.

What To Do

I know what you're thinking: thick layers of leaves can be bad for your grass. Leaves prevent your grass from getting sunlight and can even cause the ground to mold. Obviously, we don't want that either.

The source explains that some maintenance is required. They suggest running your lawn mower over a thin layer of leaves to chop them up.

Doing this actually makes the leaves break down more quickly ultimately getting those nutrients to your soil faster.

The source also suggests raking the leaves into a pile; this will eventually create a nice mulch for your garden bed and trees. The source also says many cities collect leaves for composting at a central facility.