Is Raking Necessary?

Fall is coming, and with it, so many amazing things. I love this time of year. The food, the warm drinks, a cool but refreshing breeze, hoodies, spooky movies. It’s all aces to me.
But one thing that comes with this time of year is a chore pretty much everyone hates.

Raking.

But is it actually necessary? The jury seems to still be out on this one. Some swear by it’s positive effects, while others cast it off as just another part of the useless activity of keeping a tidy yard. So here’s a few of the major talking points for both sides so you can decide for yourself.

The plus sides to raking do involve the above mentioned tidiness, but there is more to it than that. It removes harmful thatch (the dead grass above the soil) that can choke off your lawn and create more dead grass. It can also remove some dead leaves that could potentially carry harmful diseases that could affect your trees and other plants in the yard. The biggest benefit comes for gardeners, as it provides you with plenty of free compost to be used later to add nutrients to your garden and planters.

The immediate plus side to not raking is pretty obvious. It’s sucky, back breaking work. But a naturalist will also point out that some birds and insects depend on leaves for various reasons, especially some species of butterflies. So if you love butterflies, perhaps put the rake away. And while thatch and some kinds of leaves are bad, many kinds of leaves are actually good to let decompose directly on your lawn for it’s own natural fertilizer, much like raking them into a compost pile would do for your garden.

The bottom line is, there are benefits to both, and the choice is honestly up to you. Considering thatch=bad, but leaves=good, perhaps a light raking before the leaves fall is most beneficial to you.

So what do you think?