Where I live, fall means crisp mornings, shorter days, and beautiful changing leaves—which go from being on the trees one day to covering our yard the next. My husband usually takes the lead on this seasonal chore, first raking them into a giant pile for the kids to jump in, then bagging them up for me to take to the yard waste site (we don’t have curbside pickup for leaves where we live, but at least we can drop off our compost at the same time).

We used this method in our front yard yesterday, which ended with me getting stung by a bee on my ring finger as I picked up a handful of leaves. Awesome.

Surely there is a better way that is less hassle, less painful, and more environmentally friendly? I know a lot of people who swear by mulching their leaves instead of raking and bagging, but we’ve never tried it. Is this the way to go?

According to Mother Nature Network, the answer is yes.

We don’t have a mulching mower or a leaf vacuum, two tools that the above article recommends. But I will give it a shot with our lawn mower in the backyard and see how it goes!

Adopt a Drain

I don’t remember where I first heard about it, but our city has an Adopt a Drain program that encourages residents to help keep the drains on the street free from leaves, dirt and debris that could end up in our lakes and rivers. I pulled up the website and sure enough, there were several drains around our house that needed to be adopted.

We live on a busier street, so we picked one around the corner. The kids named it Cookey. We will check on it once a week and make sure it’s clean! They will also send us a yard sign to encourage others to adopt their own drains. (More on yard signs next week…)

What else should we do to ensure eco-friendly fall cleanup? I will post other ideas on Twitter and Instagram as I learn more throughout the week.