I have a new lawn that has started growing for 2-3 weeks now- I cleared a piece of land (about 2500 sq ft) and planted grass seed. I watered every day once for first 2 weeks and then the rains returned, it looks like the seed has germinated well- in some areas the grass has come up 2+ inches and in some areas it is still about an inch. Given that, I have a few questions.

•I have tall trees all around this new grass and with recent thunder storms and severe wind conditions- the leaves of these big trees have fallen on this new grass. Additionally, there is a big black locust tree and it has dropped quite a few pods on the new grass. I am afraid of walking over this new grass to remove these pods and leaves. I tried to blow them with a blower and they are kind of heavy so they just moved a little. Since this new grass area is so large- I could not use the blower to blow this stuff off by standing on the edge of the grass (again, I did not want to walk over the new grass). What do you recommend I do? Just leave this stuff and grass will grow OK still? I can post a picture- it is not completely covered but it is there.

•Another question I have is that these pods have fallen over my existing lawn also (I am not referring to the new grass that I talked about in the previous bullet). I mowed my lawn yesterday and simply mowed over these dried out pods- is this a problem?

This is my first-ever Fall season as a homeowner, so appreciate any and all advice I can get.

Thank you.

-Random

I think leaving the leaves and pods on your new grass is the best option.

Mowing over the seedpods on the mature lawn should be fine. You may get some locust seedlings in the lawn in the spring. I would just mow them too.

But if I leave leaves and pods on the new grass, will it not prevent new grass from growing?

Once it gets cold enough the grass will no longer be growing in any case. I can't think of any option to remove them if you can't walk on the grass yet. The only other thing I can think of is to wait until there is a frost light enough to make the surface frozen enough to walk on, but not freeze the leaves to the grass, then you could try and blow or rake the leaves off. Grass survives winters with months covered in snow so I don't think I would be too worried about it.

I am just concerned that if I leave those leaves on the new grass- the grass may not grow well, Not sure how to address this concern

Leave the leaves. Nature normally takes pretty good care of her own.

Personally, I would till under the grass and plant edibles.

What little I know about turf.... Suggests that leaving stuff on top of the lawn kills it.

I usually encourage people to mulch their lawn in the autumn to make the spring vegetable garden easy to put in.

There's a reason that people rake leaves.

And.... When I plant carrots and mustard and kale and stuff, I pick the dropped leaves off the seedlings, because leaving them to smother the veggies is a non-starter.

So.... The question about the locust would be.... Do you really think the leaves and pods are large enough to smother anything?

I really doubt it.

The leaves that concern me are falling from poplars and mulberries.

I remember once being bothered by leaves on new grass. Here is what I did. I placed bricks at intervals and set a board across the bricks...I weighed a lot less at the time.
I walked along the board and picked up the leaves. Most of the grass was not harmed by the process and the small spaces where the bricks had been placed recovered quickly.

Forgot to say, this is a good activity for middle-sized children who will work for cookies and/or ice cream. They can actually make a game of it.