Composting Fall Leaves is a Great Activity for Lawn and Garden Health

Fall brings unique flavors like pumpkin spice, leisure activities like watching new TV shows and picturesque scenery like striking colors and falling leaves. Many gardeners and sustainability enthusiasts have leaf composting on their list of fun activities for fall. Composting can be a rewarding experience because compost helps soil, plants and lawns. Composting also reduces the need to landfill organic material, saving landfill space.

Composting is nature’s recycling. Compost is produced when organic matter, like leaves, are broken down by bacteria and fungi into a valuable soil amendment. Raked leaves, mowed grass and trimmed branches are some of the materials that can be used to make compost at home. Compost can be used throughout a landscape by digging it into gardens and flower beds, adding it to the soil when renovating a lawn, raking into an existing lawn or using it in potting soil.

Some of the benefits of compost include holding nutrients in soil, lessening the need for chemical fertilizers and preventing the leaching of nitrogen into water. It also promotes healthy plants that are less susceptible to diseases and insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides. Compost reduces soil erosion and water runoff because plant roots penetrate compost-rich soil easier and hold the soil in place. Water can run down into lower soil layers rather than running off, reducing watering frequency.

There are several methods of backyard composting and the tools and equipment range from basic gardening tools to special purpose bins and tumblers. Virginia Cooperative Extension provides extensive information on the benefits of using compost and how to start composting at home in its Backyard Composting publication.

For those who aren’t excited by the idea of composting, placing yard waste in paper yard waste bags or in a container labeled “yard waste” for curbside collection by local trash and recycling collection companies is a good alternative to have waste removed. This special collection is from March through December in Prince William County. The collected yard waste is commercially composted at the Balls Ford Road Compost Facility. For those who do not compost at home, they can enjoy the benefits of using compost on their lawns and gardens by purchasing it at the Prince William County Landfill or Balls Ford Road Compost Facility.

For gardeners, sustainability enthusiasts or the compost-curious, fall is a great time to begin composting leaves and other yard waste to make a soil amendment that is great for gardens and the planet, year-round.