It’s great to have big shade trees in your yard, but come fall you can start to resent them. Those big trees drop leaves and that means extra work for you. However, there’s good news! A recent study done at Michigan State University shows that you can forget about raking, blowing, and bagging leaves. Lawn care is easier than ever. Instead, just mulch them with your lawn mower. It’ll save you work, improve your soil, and add nutrients. Take the grass catcher off your mower and mow over the leaves on your lawn. You want to reduce your leaf clutter to dime-size pieces. You’ll know you’re done when about half an inch of grass can be seen through the mulched leaf layer. Once the leaf crumbs settle in, microbes and worms get to work recycling them. Any kind of rotary-action mower will do the job, and any kind of leaves can be chopped up. With several passes of your mower, you can mulch up to 18 inches of leaf clutter. When spring arrives, you’ll notice that the leaf litter you mulched up in the fall will have disappeared and your grass will look greener than ever.