Burning Fall Leaves Safely

12/6/2021 (Permalink)

While you certainly can burn leaves safely, it’s important to understand what’s okay to burn and what’s not. You should only burn debris from trees, including leaves, twigs, and smaller branches. These materials burn relatively quickly and retain very little heat when extinguished, making them safe to burn.

But by far, the greatest concern about open burning is its potential to quickly get out of hand quickly. An uncontained fire can grow out of control very quickly, with catastrophic results. In fact, humans cause nearly 85% of wildfires, many of which start as burning leaf piles.

Mulch Leaves Instead of Burning

Another option is to shred leaves for use as mulch for your lawn or to help protect garden and landscape plants. Lawn and garden specialist suggest adding no more than a two-to-three-inch layer of leaves around actively growing plants, chopping or shredding the leaves first so they don’t mat down and prevent air from reaching roots.

As to using leaves as mulch for your lawn, it is just a simple matter of mowing right over the leaves with the lawnmower and leaving them there. As with leaves used for garden mulch, this will provide many benefits, including weed suppression, moisture conservation and moderation of soil temperature.