(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Gardening with a Purpose: Leaving the Leaves [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-01-21
A pile of oak leaves my neighbor's tree kindly contributed to my side yard this past autumn
One of my bad old gardening habits was dutifully cleaning up the leaves shed by the deciduous trees in my yard each autumn, and piling them up on the curb. I felt somewhat virtuous since our city had a leaf pick-up program in early winter to take away the leaf piles and turn them into commercial mulch.
Now, after viewing Doug Tallamy’s presentations about his Homegrown National Park project, I know better.
Fallen leaves decompose over time, releasing nutrients for tree roots. They are great cost-free mulch.
But more importantly – fallen leaves can harbor resting stages of butterflies and moths whose caterpillars munched on the leaves in summer. Chopping up leaves for mulch destroys them.
And, intact leaves serve as a refuge for other insects over winter, and as a winter food source for birds scratching through the leaves looking for those bugs.
Of course, fallen leaf piles are inherently messy. Leaves can smother grass (another excellent reason to get rid of lawn!).
I follow the group Pollinator Friendly Yards on Facebook. This group has lots of information and individual experiences to share about native plants, birds, and bees. They routinely make the point that fallen leaves are incredibly valuable for insects and other wildlife.
www.facebook.com/...
I also study neighbor’s yards when I take walks. This past fall I noted that many just raked up their leaves for disposal, as I used to do, leaving the lawn bare.
A tree in the yard is great, but where are the leaves the tree dropped in autumn?
But some moved leaves off the lawn and piled them around trees and bushes. Much better.
Fallen leaves moved from lawn to a grass-free tree and shrub area of the front yard.
My next-door neighbor’s oak tree contributed a substantial leaf dump to my side yard this past autumn. I spread the leaves under the bushes and the serviceberry tree I planted last summer, together with leaves from the ornamental maple in the front yard.
Fallen oak and maple leaves piled around my little serviceberry tree and ocean spray bush. The side yard used to be all grass. Some perennials, like the common yarrow and tickseed by the pot, are still green in January.
Sure, the leaves blow around during winter storms, but I keep raking them back around the plants. The leaves should eventually settle down into a rich insect breeding habitat. And as they decompose over summer, I’ll look forward to adding more leaves next autumn.
Let me know how you deal with fallen leaves.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/21/2148509/-Gardening-with-a-Purpose-Leaving-the-Leaves
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
