EcoBlog

It’s that time of year when leaves seem to blanket everything in sight in much of the U.S., at least in locales where there is an abundance of deciduous trees and shrubs.  For years, homeowners have taken great care to remove every dead leaf from their landscapes as if those leaves were coated with toxic waste.  An army of rakes and leaf blowers burst into action in the fall, filling countless leaf bags, left at the end of driveways like yesterday’s trash, waiting to be hauled away.  As hours of time, money and energy are depleted, landfills pile up.

By the end of fall, in many suburban landscapes, you can barely tell that trees have ever had any leaves at all, as no evidence remains on the ground.  All that raking and leaf blowing results in bare, compacted soil, the enemy of healthy plant growth.  In the spring, to remedy the now damaged soil, landscape contractors and able-bodied homeowners set about filling their naked plant beds with newly purchased mulch and compost, covering the barren earth where the leaves once fell.  And so it goes, year after year.

The great irony?  Those fallen leaves are actually nature’s mulch and compost, valuable and costly to replace.  Where I live, a bag of shredded bark mulch can easily sell for $15 and compost can cost even more.

As leaves decompose they unleash important nutrients into the soil, part of a nutrient cycle that is required by healthy ecosystems where deciduous trees and shrubs dominate. But leaves do even more than that:

Some Benefits of Leaving Leaves in the Landscape

– Decaying leaves help to retain moisture in the soil and capture rainwater so that it can infiltrate into the soil, critical for plant health and deterring stormwater runoff.

– Leaves help maintain soil chemistry and fertility which dictate what plants can grow, and in turn, what creatures will be supported – critical to ecosystem balance and health.

– Leaves help protect the soil from erosion, so important in the face of extreme weather events and flooding.

– Layers of leaves act to suppress weeds, just as purchased mulch does, but they are free!

– “Leaf litter” – those nice layers of decomposing leaves, serve as habitat, cover and foraging areas for many creatures. Numerous invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and even some birds and mammals use leaf litter as their home and their buffet.

– Many insects overwinter in leaf litter. Insects are part of a food web and lunch for many creatures. The vast majority of terrestrial birds feed insects to their young. If you don’t have insects you can’t support birds. Period.

– Leaf litter supports millions of small organisms, including bacteria and fungi, nematodes and springtails, millipedes and insect larvae which eat their way through the leaves, breaking down their carbon compounds, releasing nutrients into the soil.

“Managing” Leaves

Think twice before you trash those leaves. Here are some ways to “manage” your leaves if you have an overabundance of them, or don’t want to eliminate your lawn (A thick layer of leaves doesn’t play well with turfgrass, but it’s high time to consider reducing your lawn – what I call the “Green Desert”).

– Leave leaves alone in any wooded areas. They are doing their job and not bothering anyone.

– In managed plant beds, try to leave leaves in place, as well.  If the depth of leaves is truly overwhelming: remove some leaves by hand and spread them into other areas of your landscape.

– If you have a lawn full of leaves, gently rake the leaves into plant beds and woodland edges.  If you really must, you can use a mulching mower and run over the leaves in place.  The tiny leaf pieces will decompose and add nutrients to your lawn.  The downside is that you may have “sliced and diced” many invertebrates in the process. It’s best to collect leaves and use them in another part of your landscape.  Now is a good time to rethink how much lawn you really need, and plan to replace the rest with native plants.

– When the above approaches are not sufficient, then buy or build a compost bin and start making your own fabulous compost – don’t forget to add “green material.”  Most local extensions have great online information on how to compost.

– You might live “downstream” of some neighbors with huge trees and wind up with all of their leaves.  If you are buried in more leaves than you know what to do with, mulch some leaves and sell them to your “upstream” neighbors next spring when they are looking to buy mulch and compost!

Enjoy Nature’s Gold! From Kim Eierman at EcoBeneficial

Photo: Nature’s compost getting ready
Photo credit: Flickr/timpeartrice