Residents in St. Joseph County may want to spend the weekend raking their leaves ahead of planned leaf pickup next week.

Leaf pickup will begin in Penn Township on Monday, April 4, and then crews will rotate counter clockwise around the county.

To make sure that the leaves are picked up, residents should rake the leaves into piles less than 5 feet away from the roadside and not in the road. Leaf piles should be free of grass clippings, pine needles, trash, tree limbs and pete feces. Leaves should not be bagged.