mnmaggie says:

April 10th, 2009 at 9:59 am

I will be out raking leaves off my perennial garden today but won’t rake the lawn. I’m always cautious about removing mulch too early but during a walk around the neighborhood yesterday I saw a lot of gardens that looked like they’d been cleaned up - so I’m going to take the plunge.

Mike says:

April 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am

I raked already. I have a nice south facing lawn. It has already dried up and shows signs of greening up. When I rake, I made sure I was extra gentle.

Connie Nelson says:

April 10th, 2009 at 10:41 am

Jennifer,
You can go ahead and pull out the dead stems and stuff if you can work from the edges of the garden. If you walk around on the soil a lot, you can compact it, which isn’t a good thing.

I’m like you. I leave everything up in the fall. I think it looks better all winter. And it doesn’t even look bad now. I’m leaving my stuff up for a week or two. It looks better than a naked garden.

Robyn Dochterman says:

April 10th, 2009 at 10:43 am

I raked some parts of the yard already, and will likely do more in the firm, dry parts. I’ll leave those other parts alone for now. I see the guy across the road is paying neighborhood kids to rake, as well.

Carly says:

April 10th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

We’re definitely not ready to rake yet. Our grass doesn’t grow very well anyway, due to our aspen trees (big roots), so we’re putting off raking for awhile. The dog doesn’t seem to have reached that decision, as he’s doing his best to rake parts of the yard everytime he’s outside. It’s driving my husband crazy!

I did go out and remove the dead stuff from our lillies and peonies, since I noticed that they’re all poking up already. Other than that, this weekend will involve turning over the soil in my beds and adding to it so I’ll be ready to plant when it’s time.

Connie Nelson says:

April 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

Parts of my yard are still frozen. All the snow is gone, but the soil — and the mulch — is hard as a rock on the north side of the house. It’ll be weeks before I can do anything there. The south side is a lot warmer, but I’ll keep the mulch in place for a while. It’s just too risky to me to remove it yet. I don’t have any plants trying to push their way up through it yet . ..

laura says:

April 11th, 2009 at 8:40 am

i used my leaf blower/vacuum to suck up the leaves along the fence, and to suck up the loose leaves in my bed. i left the wet or frozen leaves alone because they gunk up the leaf blower. my front yard needs to be raked eventually, but i’m busy getting my garden in the backyard ready for expansion and tilling.

Chris says:

April 11th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

I’ve a 8-year-old sodded lawn. I mulch when I mow (with my electric mower - do I get points for that? :-). I’ve been trying to decide for a couple of years now if I should dethatch the lawn, what I do with the thatch, what I do after I thatch, and all that. Is there some advice someone could offer or a website someone could point me at? Thanks.

jeff says:

April 13th, 2009 at 8:51 am

I sharpened the blade on my mower, jacked it up to the highest level, used it to suck and grind up all the leaves on the lawn, and added it to my compost pile. I couldn’t do it in the fall due to leg surgery. My lawn is long since dry, I was covered in dirt from head to toe from all the fine dirt pulled up from the mower.