Should you remove dead leaves off your lawn? Yes and no. It's complicated

As we enter into the heart of the fall season, it's only a matter of time before the recurring question about autumn lawn maintenance emerges: Should I rake dead leaves off my lawn?

The short answer? No, but yes.

It's complicated.

No, you shouldn't rake and dispose of leaves the traditional way

"We have this idea that goes back generations that the leaves need to be raked out of our yard and either put in a compost pile somewhere or disposed of somehow," Canadian gardening expert and best-selling author Mark Cullen told The Weather Network in an interview in 2018.

In recent years, the environmental impacts of raking have become increasingly well known. In Canada, a heaping 1.1 million tonnes of yard debris is disposed of per year, totalling about 37 per cent of the nation's organic waste.

While the leaves sit in landfills, lacking adequate oxygen to decompose, they release methane — a greenhouse gas over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. According to Canada's Greenhouse Gas Inventory, in 2022, emissions from Canadian landfills accounted for 17 per cent of national methane emissions.

If that isn't enough to deter you, raking leaves also takes time and money, Cullen said.

"Think about how much work this would save you. If you're not raking leaves up and putting them into a plastic bag or a kraft-paper bag—that we so often use now for disposing of our leaves—and then hauling those bags down to the curb of the driveway and leaving them for the municipality to pick up. You just saved yourself all of that work, and you saved the municipality the expense of doing it."

WATCH: Fallen leaves are everywhere, here's the best way to dispose of them

Yes, it's still important to maintain your lawn — which includes clearing dead leaves

It's true, dead leaves do act as a fertilizer for soil, providing a natural source of carbon for the earth. It's the reason why some people choose to leave the leaves where they fall—but according to Cullen, you shouldn't do that.

"Don't leave [dead leaves] on your grass, because when leaves fall on your lawn they cut out rays of the sunshine and cause brown spots to occur," the horticultural expert explained.

The idea that leaves need to be removed altogether is where we're wrong. Instead, Cullen said raking the leaves and putting them into your garden is best.

"Sitting on the surface of the soil, [the leaves] become a meal for earth worms. They come up from about a metre deep in your garden, and they come up to the surface of the soil ... and they pull those leaves down into the ground and they consume them. They literally eat them."

The worms then convert the leaves into nitrogen-rich earthworm castings, adding both nitrogen and very valuable microbes to the soil, which, according to Cullen, is excellent for the overall health of garden soil.

"Now if you really want to be efficient about this, you'd run your lawn mower or power mower over the leaves a couple of times, break them down into tiny little pieces, and rake the mulch of the leaves onto your garden," Cullen said. This way, the leaves break down and become incorporated with the soil much quicker.

So yes, it's important to rake the leaves off your lawn. But you don't need to remove them altogether. Just relocate dead leaves to a garden space where they enhance the natural plant cycle while saving you time and money.

WATCH: Why do leaves change colour? One simple reason, discussed here

This article was originally published in 2018, and has been updated.

(Header image courtesy: Getty Images/Maksym Belchenko | Creative #: 1636118229 | Collection: iStock / Getty Images Plus)