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Some Thoughts on People Bagging Leaves, Instead of Running Them Over With a Lawnmower

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 13th, 2026 · 10:00 AM EST

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Do you rake your leaves and bag them up in the fall?

You don’t have to do this.

Not sure if it’s a common misconception or what, but leaves don’t actually damage your lawn if you leave them there.

The only problem you have to worry about is thick and wet coverage, which can block sunlight and trap moisture, suffocating the grass and turning it yellow. For instance, coverage like this needs to be addressed:

But if there’s 20% or less density, you’re totally fine. The leaves will blow around in the winter and then decompose on their own. You only need act if the coverage is super-thick, like yo mama.

More often than not, you can simply run over the leaves with your lawnmower. If you have a coverage density between 20% and 60%, you can safely mulch the leaves into the ground, or even sweep them into garden beds to restore nutrients into the soil. The leaf shreds will break down and return some nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the Earth.

Exceptions can include:

• You don’t actually have a lawnmower, or you hire a crew to do your lawn and they’ve wrapped it up for the season.
• Your insufferable HOA makes you get rid of the leaves.
• You’re in the city or don’t have usable green space.
• You like doing the physical labor and/or need an excuse to get away from your wife and kids.

The latter happens. One of my neighbors rakes his leaves onto a tarp and then drags them into the woods for dumping. That works. His coverage is a little thicker than 50-60%, so the mulching is less tenable for him.

But it’s kind of cringe to see the bags placed on the curb for pickup. Right? Am I off-base? These bags can end up at composting or recycling centers, but others are just dumped into the landfill. It depends on where in the United States you live. Though the transport adds to the already-large carbon footprint of trash disposal. It feels counterintuitive to take a biodegradable substance, put it in a biodegradable bag, and have a truck come and pick it up, because it can break down naturally in the actual place where it fell. Bagging it up for transport feels redundant.

It’s easiest to just run them over with the mower. Employ brute force via heavy machinery.

This has been your landscaping blog of the day!*

*potential advertisers – email me if you want to sponsor a weekly landscaping column: “Crossing Broadleaf”