Which is better for the lawn over the winter?

 If no scientific study available, which is better in your experience or
opinion?
Raking all the leaves off the lawn before winter, or leaving the leaves
where they fell, and under a blanket of snow (see sig for location). If
left on the lawn where they fell, would the nutrients be better released
by melting snow, and also provide a smidgen of insulation for the ground?

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

 
If you let the leaves stay on the lawn where they fall, you'll quickly
have dead grass.   Leaves fall while the grass is still actively
growing.   Covering it up with leaves and keeping it wet will quickly
kill it, just as any other mulch will.  With a mulching mower, you can
mulch up light leave coverings to return some organic matter to the
soil.

 trader4@optonline.net wrote:


And depending on what kind of tree, if the leaves have anything nasty on
them (maple black spot, etc) they by not raking and removing, you're
promoting that stuff to return to the tree next spring.

My city has 2 leaf collection periods where bagged leaves are picked up
at the curb.  Even if it's 10 or 20 (well-packed) bags.

Lazy people will leave them where they land.  Slightly less lazy people
will run over them with a lawn mower.  People that want healthy lawn and
trees will bag them and get them the hell outa there.

 
The premise (which I think is not valid) is that all people are under the
notion that removing the leaves is the best solution for a healthy and green
lawn and rees.  Therefore (based on the premise), for everyone anything less
than that is an exhibition of some degree of laziness toward that solution.

If you had said, in my opinion (state premise).  Therefore, in my opinion
(state conclusion).  There's no room to disagree, its your opinion.
--
Dave

If it looks like fish, smells like fish, its not
a cantaloupe.

 Dioclese wrote:


The corollary to your point would then be that people that do not bag
their leaves are under the solid notion that leaving them on the ground
*is better*.  There might be some of those, but I don't think it applies
to the majority of "non-baggers".  

I happen to believe that those that don't rake them are lazy and it
probably shows in other ways that they take care of their grounds and
property all year round.  Maybe they're physically incapable of raking
and bagging - but in those cases they are presumably paying for yard
maintainence - or they are on the eve of moving out of their home and
into an apartment or managed care facility.

Our city stopped collecting bagged grass during regular weekly garbage
pickup about 10 years ago.  Ever since then, if you bag your grass, you
either compost it on your own propery, or you drop it at specified
depots and pay $1 a bag.  By osmosis, every land-owner has come to
understand that the correct (or at least the politically-correct) thing
to do with cut grass is to leave it on the lawn.

Our city has been collecting bagged leaves in the fall for as long as I
can remember, and they still do.  By osmosis, every residential
land-owner is aware that raking and bagging leaves is the "natural"
thing to do and is supported by a service provided by the city.  The
big-box stores now have over-sized leaf rakes and leaf bags (paper and
clear plastic) visible front and center when you enter, further
reinforcing the concept that raking and bagging leaves is normal or
natural, if not a beneficial part of turf and property management.


Yes, because as I've described, there are public "cues" that point to
leaf raking and bagging as something that's a normal, if not expected
part of property management.

As well, leaves that accumulate in the gutters and curbs of residential
streets are a public nuisance that impedes the dissapation of rain and
snow melt until the city cleans them in the spring.  Those that rake
their leaves onto the road or allow their leaves to collect are
negligent and lazy in that regard.


It's my opinion that (most, many, or all) people would like to have an
extra $10 in their pocket right now.  Is that an opinion, or fact?  Can
an opinion never be shown to also be a fact?