My wife and I don't really have too many trees in our yard-- okay, we have one tree-- so raking the leaves each fall isn't too big a challenge. But there's a new study out that says you probably shouldn't rake your leaves anyway.

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My mom's house (the house I grew up in) back in Wisconsin has a TON of trees, and raking them each fall was always a big chore. Which means mom would probably like these results that say it's actually better for the environment if we DON'T rake our leaves each year.

According to this KARE-11 story, there are a few big reasons to keep that rake in your garage. First, not raking your leaves could save you money by acting as natural fertilizers that can help your lawn grow, the story says.

Not raking also helps out natural wildlife the story also says. Both Butterflies and songbirds depend on leaf litter, that often contains many insects, the story noted.

And finally, leaves and yard waste take up a lot of space in our landfills. The story says that a whopping 20 to 30 percent of waste in our landfills is biodegradable waste like leaves and grass clippings, so leaving them on your lawn is much better for our environment.

We have a wooded area at the back of our property where we haul our raked leaves each fall, so that third reason doesn't really work for us. But I'm all about those other two reasons. So if you're looking to get out of raking this year, have whoever has sent you out to rake those leaves read this post instead. Then go have another pumpkin spice latte!

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