Labor Day signified the beginning of fall. With the change of season, if you’ve got great shade trees as part of the landscape, it means you’ll have to rid your yard of all those leaves in a few weeks.

Put the rake away, though. There are three advantages to mulching those leaves rather than raking and bagging them.

Mulching feeds your lawn

One of the secrets to creating a lawn that will be the envy of every other homeowner in the neighborhood is to make sure to give it the nutrients it needs to turn lush and green. To do so, you have to feed it twice a year; once in the spring to kick-start it and once in the fall to sustain it through the winter.

In the spring, the weed and feed you find at the home improvement store or nursery is great. But in the fall, nature will provide all the nutrients your lawn needs in the form of clippings and leaves.

Mulching saves you time

Think back to last fall. Did you end up raking and bagging multiple times? It seems like trees drop their leaves a couple of different times in the fall. That might be the case, but if you have two or three different species of trees, it could definitely be the case. Depending on where you live in the country, when your trees start to drop leaves, your grass is not yet dormant, so you’ll be mowing anyway.

Mulching saves you money

When you rake your leaves, it costs you. Whether your local taxes pay for trucks to sweep up your leaves or you pay a compost company to pick them up, it costs money.

Mulching is more environmentally friendly

If the city picks them up, they often end up in landfills. Mulching those leaves recycles a natural resource, giving you richer soil at no cost. If you burn the leaves, it throws carbon into the air.

So leave the rake in the garage or shed and mulch those leaves this fall. You’ll save time, money and the environment while making your lawn and landscape beautiful.