As the cooler temperatures arrive and you’ll soon be exchanging your leaf rake for snow shovel, consider a few simple leaf raking tips that will help winterize your lawn while increasing your chances for a better spring green-up.

How well you maintain the leaves in your lawn is a large indicator for how healthy and prepared your lawn will be for next season. When neglected, leaves can suffocate and rob turf of sunlight, water and other essential nutrients. For every leaf that lies on top of your turf, multiple blades of grass beneath it run the risk of browning or even worse, developing patches of mold or fungus depending on how low temperatures drop in your area.

Depending on your yard, raking once a week should be sufficient in at least warding off fungus and disease from developing in your yard. If you do step up to twice a week, try to keep it to a light raking as it will be gentler on your lawn. Raking is a natural form of dethatching but a little layer of thatch build up is actually healthy for your turf. Just be sure the second raking doesn’t over do it.

If you want to save time and utilize leaves for compost, a mulching mower is a smart investment. A mulching mower can be very beneficial to your yard as it will chop up and shred leaves to easily decompose in the soil. This granulates leaves into a natural fertilizer to be absorbed into your lawn.