Every fall the same question comes up: do the leaves really have to go, or can they wait until spring? The honest answer is that it depends on how many there are.
A few leaves are fine. A blanket is not.
A light scattering of leaves that you can still see grass through will not hurt anything. You can even mulch them into the lawn with a mower, and they will break down and feed the soil.
The trouble starts when leaves form a continuous layer. On wooded lots in Millstone, Jackson, Howell and Colts Neck, that can happen in a single windy weekend.
What a thick layer of leaves does
It blocks light. Cool-season grass keeps growing and storing energy well into November. A mat of leaves shuts that down right when the lawn is trying to recover from summer.
It traps moisture. Wet, matted leaves keep the grass underneath damp for weeks. That is the ideal setup for snow mold and other fungal problems that show up as gray or pink matted patches in March.
It smothers the turf. By spring, the grass under a heavy leaf layer is often thin, yellow or dead, and those bare spots fill in with weeds before grass can recover.
It shelters pests. Voles in particular love tunneling under leaf cover through winter, leaving winding trails of dead grass behind.
When to remove leaves in Central New Jersey
Leaf drop here generally starts in mid-October and runs through late November. Maples tend to drop early. Oaks hang on the longest, sometimes into December.
That long window is why one cleanup is not always enough:
- Lightly treed yards: one thorough cleanup after most leaves are down usually does it.
- Heavily wooded lots: two or three visits keep the lawn from being buried for weeks at a time while you wait for the oaks to finish.
Either way, the goal is to have the lawn clear before the first lasting snow.
Do not forget the beds and corners
Lawns get the attention, but leaves also pile up in places that cause problems later:
- Against the foundation and in window wells, where they hold moisture
- In beds, where a thick wet layer can rot the crowns of perennials
- Along fences and behind sheds
- On patios and walkways, where they stain and get slippery
A thin layer of leaves in garden beds is fine and even helpful. Several inches of soggy, matted leaves is not.
What about the curb?
Many towns in Monmouth and Ocean County run leaf collection in the fall, each with its own schedule and rules. If you prefer curbside pickup, check your town’s dates. Otherwise the leaves need to be hauled away.
The easy option
Leaf cleanup on a wooded property is a big job with a rake and a tarp. With commercial blowers and a crew, it takes a fraction of the time. Our leaf removal service clears lawn, beds and fence lines and takes everything with us, in one visit or several through the season.