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svejkovat

Mulching vs Raking

svejkovat
9 years ago

http://www.scotts.com/smg/goART2/InfoHowTo/mulching-leaves/11800002

I've been doing this for a few years now and often wonder if I'm doing the right thing by the lawn.

Is this pretty widely accepted? I shouldn't fret about it much. My lawn is 50/50 grass and weeds, but looks good enough when freshly mowed.

I'd say I have average neighborhood leaf volume in the fall.
Got a little JD riding mower this summer. Last fall I had great success with a spare Honda-powered MTD pusher that I dedicated to leaf chewing. I skirted the mower all around with sturdy polyethylene from a kid's roll-up sled. Cut to 5 inch strip and pop riveted to the deck to lower the deck edge about 2.5 inches. Covered the chute as well. All this contains the leaves from blowing out they're shredded extra fine.

Also cut a 20 X 15 inch piece and riveted it to the front. If you can picture this it flops down in front of the mower and forward movement catches it and drags the leading edge under the mower, but not far enough to touch the blades. In this position it looks like a 10 inch diameter curl of plastic at the front of the mower.

The front of the mower can't be skirted like the sides or it just pushes leaves ahead of it. Left open, all of the air pressure escaping from it blows the leaves out of the way. The curl of poly plastic rides over the leaf layer and presses it down and into the mower. Leaves go in but air can't escape.

Used it two falls like this with fantastic results.

I plan on doing something similar to my rider this fall, but in a way that can be easily removed in spring.

Has anyone come up with similar ideas/additions to mulching?
Always open to improvements.

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