Leave the leaves for healthier lawns and soil

Reduce work, improve soil quality, support pollinators, and benefit from beautiful lawns and gardens with these fall lawn tips.

Leave your leaves right at home; here's how

Here's why

We encourage residents to utilize their curbside composting and leaf vacuum programs, but also recognize the added environmental impact these programs result in with transportation emissions and resources needed to process organic material elsewhere.

Leaving your leaves right at home reduces this environmental impact and results in many other environmental benefits for your yard.

As a reminder: yard waste is not allowed to go into the trash, per state law. Visit our curbside composting web page, and our leaf vacuum web page, to learn more.

Wood chip mulch

When added to landscaping and garden beds, mulch retains moisture (keeping your soil and plants hydrated), prevents weeds, provides nutrients back to the soil, and assists with stormwater control.

Where to get mulch:

• Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, 3900 Hebl Ave. SW
• • Mulch is available in small or large batches at no cost to residential and commercial customers.
  • Small batch is self-service - bring containers and shovel to load; staff can assist with loading large batches.
• Local garden or hardware stores in our area offer options for mulch and compost!

Compost is not available at this time at City locations.

Questions? Contact the City's Resource Management Superintendent Jennifer Jordan at [email protected], or 319-887-6160.