Leaves can be a healthy addition to your garden if used correctly as leaf mulch, but leaving a covering of leaves on your lawn for even a short period of time can cause big problems.

Trees shedding their leaves during the autumn and early winter period can be relentless. You clear them off one day and they’re back down again the next, and so on. However ensuring your lawn is free from debris and leaves during this time is one of the most important maintenance tasks of the year, and must be done as regularly as possible.

If left laying on the lawn for a prolonged period of time, a blanket of decaying leaves will lead to severe damage. This unsightly damage can kill off the grass and lead to extensive repair work needing to be carried out in spring.

The covering of leaves will starve the grass plants within your lawn of vital air and sunlight that it needs to grow healthily. It will kill off the grass beneath causing the lawn to become thin and also lead to disease. These bare patches will then more than likely be taken over by moss and weeds, meaning the lawn you may have worked hard on getting into a great condition during the summer, will be back to square one the following spring.