Lawn and Garden Waste

For a comprehensive ecosystems-approach to your garden, including managing yard debris, visit the Hastings Pollinator Pathway and Bedford's Healthy Yards websites.

A climate-smart approach to lawn care includes recycling organic matter. This supports local wildlife while using less fossil fuel.

• Rake whole leaves into wooded margins of yard. This gives insects and small creatures a warm spot to overwinter. 
• Create a scrub pile by raking some leaves and branches together. This provides winter cover for birds and small animals.
• Mulch fallen leaves and grass clippings into your lawn. Leaving these shreds in place is free fertilizer.
• Mulch fallen leaves gathered from your hardscapes, and use on landscape beds.
• Use leaf litter, mulched or whole, in your backyard compost system.

Mulching can be done with a lawn mower or a leaf shredder. Mulching chops your leaves into small pieces, which can then be used as a protective layer, weed suppressant, and water conserver. The mulch gradually decomposes, adding nutrients and humus to the soil. 

In Hastings, you can also leave yard "waste" at the curb for pickup in spring and fall most Wednesdays mornings (see calendar). 

• Leaf litter and other loose yard waste must in paper yard bags. No plastic bags.
• Branches must be bundled with biodegradable twine and be no longer than 4 feet long, and bundles must weigh no more than 40 lbs.
• Large trees and heavy logs or branches are the homeowner's responsibility.

Ditch gas-powered leaf blowers: their two-stroke engines are serious air polluters and greenhouse gas-emitting villains. According to NY DEC, a typical backpack leaf blower used for one hour emits as much carbon dioxide as an average automobile operating for eight hours. Eight percent of benzene and 1,3 butadiene emissions in the United States, from all sources, are generated by gas-powered lawn and garden equipment; these pollutants are both classified as carcinogens. Leaf blowers also kick up mold spores, feces, pesticides, dust and small particles, all of which worsen our air quality and exacerbate asthma, in addition to causing stress from noise. Their use is forbidden in Hastings during certain times of the year. Use electric leaf blowers or brooms on hardscapes, and mulch-mow leaves directly into grass. Using leaf blowers on grass damages topsoil.

Click here for more info on leaf blowers and Hastings' Leaf Blower Law.

For more lawn and garden care tips, visit our Healthy Landscape Initiative page.