Tricky balance when you need to manage mold/fungal growth and too much cover killing grass. But yeah, we are “wasting” a lot of nutrients by trashing leaves like we do.
Not sure why it took me year to realize that this is the best solution. Its much easier than raking my huge backyard and it’s just less wasteful at the end.
Well plants and leaves can definitely help with this. If you’re in the US, your state DNR may have resources on which plants are most effective for this in your area and site conditions.
Also, if you are getting a lot of runoff from upslope, you might need to investigate whether changes are needed at the source of this runoff rather than in the immediate area of erosion. If you can slow that upslope water and allow it to absorb in the soil up there, that can help a lot even without changing anything lower down.
You could always use native grasses and plants. There’s nothing inherently wrong with grass, but it’s important to have grasses that make sense within your ecological context. Using a bunch of non-native grasses may help for soil retention on your hill, but native grasses would do the same thing – arguably better since you can use ones with root systems that grow deeper into the soil and they’re more drought tolerant – and they’d be multipurpose (food, cover, nest materials, etc.) for native animal species. They’re often prettier and more colorful during the various seasons and take fewer resources to maintain once established.
Tricky balance when you need to manage mold/fungal growth and too much cover killing grass. But yeah, we are “wasting” a lot of nutrients by trashing leaves like we do.
That’s why I went for a twin blade mower. It turns everything into powder.
Not sure why it took me year to realize that this is the best solution. Its much easier than raking my huge backyard and it’s just less wasteful at the end.
“Need to” or " need to " …
The grass will be fine.
Too many leaves will definitely kill the grass.
Whether that’s a bad thing is a separate question.
#killyourlawn
I need something to prevent the soil from eroding when it rains.
Well plants and leaves can definitely help with this. If you’re in the US, your state DNR may have resources on which plants are most effective for this in your area and site conditions.
Also, if you are getting a lot of runoff from upslope, you might need to investigate whether changes are needed at the source of this runoff rather than in the immediate area of erosion. If you can slow that upslope water and allow it to absorb in the soil up there, that can help a lot even without changing anything lower down.
Well, my backyard is a hill.
You could always use native grasses and plants. There’s nothing inherently wrong with grass, but it’s important to have grasses that make sense within your ecological context. Using a bunch of non-native grasses may help for soil retention on your hill, but native grasses would do the same thing – arguably better since you can use ones with root systems that grow deeper into the soil and they’re more drought tolerant – and they’d be multipurpose (food, cover, nest materials, etc.) for native animal species. They’re often prettier and more colorful during the various seasons and take fewer resources to maintain once established.
Hell you could kill the invasive grasses & replace them with native plants.
There are things that kill grass. And not enough sunlight is one of them.
Unfortunately I’ve been having an issue with losing grass and dealing with erosion.
Plant a deep root plant, turff grass that’s kept short has short roots.