It may seem like a harmless activity to leave the leaves on your lawn over the winter, but it is actually quite detrimental. Leaves can smother your grass and block essential nutrients from reaching it. They also attract pests that are looking for a warm place to wait out the cold weather in Pennsylvania. Another problem with leaving the leaves on your lawn all winter long is they create the perfect environment for lawn diseases to form. Leaf piles can get covered in snow and stay there until spring, which creates the ideal conditions for fungal diseases to grow. To help keep your lawn healthy throughout the winter, you should have your leaf piles removed before the winter season arrives.

Leaves can smother your grass and block nutrients from reaching it.

One of the biggest problems with leaving leaves on your lawn over the winter season is that they can smother your grass and block vital nutrients from reaching it. This can be detrimental to its health because if leaves are smothering your lawn, essential resources like sunlight and air may not be able to reach it, causing it to become weak and possibly even die. Likewise, the leaves can build up and block nutrients from reaching the roots of your grass. Your grass depends on nutrients to survive, especially during the winter season when it needs to store up nutrients to feed off of until spring. Without a sufficient supply of nutrients, your grass can become damaged over the winter and you'll be left to deal with a weak or dead lawn come spring. It's best to remove the leaves from your lawn so your grass has access to everything it needs to thrive during the winter months!

Leaf piles can attract pests that are looking for a warm place to hide.

Piles of leaves sitting on your lawn can become the perfect hiding spot for pests. Pests like ants, cockroaches, fleas, spiders, beetles, and more are attracted to leaf piles because they provide warmth and shelter from the cold weather. If you leave the leaves on your lawn, then you risk attracting these pests to your property. Removing the leaves will eliminate this issue and make your lawn less attractive to any unwanted visitors.

Lawn diseases love the moist environment created by leaf piles.

Leaf piles can cause more harm than just pest infestations and smothered grass - they can also lead to lawn diseases forming if they sit on your lawn for too long. That's because when leaves sit on your lawn for an extended period of time, they can create a moist environment where fungi can thrive. This is especially true if they get covered in snow and sit all winter long. If your lawn becomes infected with a lawn disease over the winter, you likely won't notice it until the snow melts in the spring, and then you'll have to deal with eliminating the lawn disease and helping your lawn recover from the damage it sustained. To prevent this from happening, you should have the leaf piles removed before the first snowfall of the year.

Give us a call today to schedule our leaf removal service!

At Countywide Landscape, we offer our leaf removal service to help property owners eliminate leaves from their lawns so they don't cause any health issues or attract unwanted pests. We offer this service to commercial and residential properties, as well as HOAs, in West Chester, Downingtown, Exton, PA, and surrounding areas. Give us a call at (610) 285-9727 to schedule our leaf removal service today! We look forward to hearing from you soon!