When fall hits, you probably know that this often means lots of cleanup that needs to be done to prepare your lawn and garden for the cooler weather. While there are many communities that offer programs to help you get rid of it, why not use some of it to help cut your own costs and live more sustainable? Here are some ways to use that yard debris you have in a frugal way.
9 Ways to Use Autumn Yard Debris
Use leaves that you rake up as a natural insulator for your rose bushes. Just gather them up and place around them before you cover them for the season. This will not only create a great insulation to protect them in the colder months, but also provide natural compost nutrients as they break down.
Use lawn clippings as fertilizer for your grass. Rather than bagging them up, rake them across your lawn to give them protection from cooler weather and give them natural minerals.
Add natural things like leaves to your compost pile to make nutrient rich soil for use in the Spring. If you don’t have a compost pile yet, now is a great time to start one since you will have lots of material to work with.
If you enjoy camping, branches make great kindling. Just cut them up, bundle them and place them somewhere where they will not get ruined by the weather. When you go camping next year, you will have plenty of kindling.
Use leaves as insulation for your home or garage. They can actually help you save money on your heating bills this month if you have partially exposed areas or crawlspaces. Just gather them in bags and fill in spaces.
Use leaves as a natural fertilizer for your lawn. Just pass the lawn mower over them a few times to cut them down to small pieces (make sure you don’t have any rocks, sticks of other things in your leaves!) and leave on your lawn so they can break down faster.
Leaves also make great mulch and discourage new weed growth in the spring. Just cut them small with your lawnmower, or a shredder if you have one, and place them over you old crops. They will help the group stay moist but also give the soil new nutrients and keep weeds from spreading or growing as much.
Consider doing leaf mold. This is done by gathering leaves and placing them in bins or plastic bags and keeping them wet. Mushrooms and other types of fungi will grow, break down the material and in a couple years, you will have the best soil ever to plant with! Here are more tips on Making Leaf Mold to Use in Organic Gardening.
Save some small sticks, branches and leaves for craft projects. There really are so many that you can do using natural materials like this. Just do a quick search on Google or Pinterest for “leave crafts” or “stick crafts” and you will find lots! If you find that you have more than you need, call around to schools in the area and see if they need any.
What are some ways you use yard debris?
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