Leaves slow to fall from trees, raking up may be more of a chore this year

“A few hours here and there, you know, three or four hours, a couple of times, you know...it's not too bad,” says Norm Vaughn of Penfield who is spending part of his week off from work raking the leaves in his yard.

“Usually those leaves are all off because I'll hang the Christmas lights this week, normally.”  

However, Norm and many of his neighbors will have to wait hang certain holiday lights his year because many of the leaves on the trees have yet to hit the ground.

“We've never gotten this far with outside work, usually this time of year, we're getting ready for snow-plowing but now, everything has kind of merged into one this year,” says Sean Radomski, owner of RV Landscapes, LLC in Walworth.

“Usually we're done middle of October at the very latest.”  

Even though the leaves on the trees may look beautiful, they can become a pretty poison to your lawn once they fall on the ground if you don't rake them up.

The layer can cause not only mold to form, it can also do further damage to the lawn when a layer of snow covers the leaves.

“If you have enough leaves, it will make an impermeable layer to sunlight and it will actually kill your grass and you'll have nothing but a dead spot in the Spring,” says Radomski.  

Leaves on the tree can also pose dangers if the snow starts to fly.

“We had four inches here the other day, and I'm surprised there's not a lot more tree damage because what happens is that snow takes on the leaves and breaks branches and causes power outages,” says Radomski.