Autumn leaves of red and gold cover the ground in much of the US and Canada right now—although many of our readers are likely already seeing snow, and we’ve written about that elsewhere. Fall leaves are beautiful, a stark and poignant reminder of the cycle of life and the changing seasons, and they’re a potential boon for both your garden and for many of the wild critters that live around us. With a bit of careful management you can “leave the leaves” at least in some places and help both your soil and the environment. Let’s dig in and learn more!
The Role of Fallen Leaves
The natural world is a series of cycles, which move resources through various stages and help life thrive in each of them. Fallen leaves are part of this—they spent their lives providing energy and respiration for the plant or tree on which they grown. When the weather starts to cool down and that tree goes dormant for the winter, the leaves fall as they’re no longer needed. On the ground, they do a number of things, all of which are important:
- Fallen leaves are natural fertilizerfor the soil around the tree and the biome as a whole. They add important nutrients—including nitrogen—back to the soil and help new plants get off to a good start in the spring.
- Fallen leaves are habitat for a wide variety of creatures. Animals like squirrels use them for bedding to keep warm in the winter. Insects like bumblebees and fireflies nest in them over the winter months while also laying their eggs in fallen leaves to hatch in the spring. For worms and some ground-dwelling insects, fallen leaves are an important source of food.
- Fallen leaves help prevent erosion. This natural mulch can help keep soil moist and dissipate the impact of rain, both of which help prevent erosion and soil runoff. As part of a healthy ecosystem, fallen leaves can help garden spaces retain healthy soil.
- Fallen leaves can help prevent weeds! Yes, really—fallen leaves in your yard or garden can help prevent weeds from taking hold in your garden space! A thick layer of leaves will act as a natural mulch as we’ve mentioned before, which includes preventing weeds from taking hold while leaving your grass healthy underneath until the leaves break down and spring returns.
So with all of these advantages, it seems like leaving the leaves would be a logical choice, right? Well, it is—but we all have to work within the constraints of our own space, and the important roles played by fallen leaves may need to be balanced against other issues.
What to Do With Fall Leaves?
There’s still a time and place to rake leaves—maybe you prefer a leaf-free lawn, or your HOA requires you to do so. And that’s OK! You can still make good use of raked leaves by putting them into your composter, or piling them into veggie beds over the winter as a combination mulch/fertilizer. If you have a wild area of your lawn for wildlife—and we encourage you to do so if you can—piling up leaves there creates habitat for all sorts of insects and wildlife and they’ll greatly appreciate your support during the winter months. Our overall point is this: fallen leaves are a natural resource for your garden, and should be managed as such. With an understanding of the role fallen leaves play and the right tools to collect and move them, you can take advantage of this resource and make both your garden space and the environment better for it.
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