A LANDSCAPE designer has revealed how she keeps fallen leaves on her lawn without it looking like an ugly mess.
She explained the benefits of not putting raked leaves in a bag and sending them off to landfill as she advocated for sustainability.
Daryl (@yardfarmer.co) boasts over 164,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares a glimpse into the projects that she’s working on.
She took to the social media platform to explain how fallen leaves can be used to boost the health of soil without ruining the aesthetic of yards.
She said: “You have probably heard plenty of advice on here to leave the leaves.
“Leave the leaves that fall onto your property so that they can break down into your soil, improve your soil health, and so forth.
“You know I’m a soil health nerd so I love adding organic matter to soil, but it’s not the most nuanced or practical advice for most people.
“It doesn’t take into account HOA and some people who have lawns that just don’t like the look of lawns and leaves.
“So how do we make this work for your average person?”
Daryl suggested three different ways to repurpose fallen leaves this season instead of wrapping raked leaves in plastic and throwing them in the trash.
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Listing her ideas, she said: “One, leaves you’ll put on your lawn, two leaves you’ll put on garden/flower beds, and three compost material.
“The leaves we want to leave on the lawn in order to feed the soil, we want to break them down into smaller pieces.
“You can get a leaf mulcher. I recommend an electric one.
“You can use your lawn mower to pick up all of the leaves in your lawn area and then that’s going to break them down into those little small pieces.
“Scatter the really small pieces back over the lawn.
“They will fall down into the blades of grass and be much less noticeable and then much more easily penetrate down into the soil.
“Leaf mulching also works really well if you want to mulch landscaped areas or raised garden beds.
“You could put whole leaves down because they will eventually break down just at a slower rate.”
Daryl explained that the fallen leaves can also be beneficial for making good-quality compost.
She said: “For any other leaves that you don’t want to just leave out on the ground, collect them for composting later.
“The number one reason you have a gross, smelly, buggy compost pile is because you don’t have enough carbon.
“Get a box or crate, and put it next to your compost pile.
“Fill it up with leaves.
“For every one part of food scraps you put in, put in two parts of leaves. You’re gonna have beautiful, gorgeous compost.
“Fallen leaves are a valuable resource that nature is giving you so do not let that resource exit your property.
“You can be smart and strategic in how you use them so that you have an aesthetic and gorgeous yard.”
She captioned the post: “I love #leavetheleaves, but here are some practical uses for leaves that take aesthetics of your yard in mind while still helping your soil become healthier and more drought tolerant.”
Thousands of viewers liked the video and left comments thanking Daryl for sharing her useful tips.
One person wrote: “Was really hoping you’d make a video about this – thank you!!”
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Another commented: “I feel like there’s such a push to ‘leave the leaves’ that I’m shamed for raking. I compost and mulch half but we have so many trees some have to go.”
A third said: “I steal all my leaves to use as mulch in my garden beds [laughing].”
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