Six Smart Reasons to
Leave the Autumn Leaves
Autumn is
in full swing. No matter where you live in North America, gardeners are
watching leaves falling as temperatures cool. Even if you don’t have a
deciduous forest in your backyard, you still have bare tree branches, bushes
going dormant, perennial plants dying back, and lawns turning brown. You can’t leave all the leaves on the lawn;
that wouldn’t make for a healthy lawn come spring. But, you don’t have to rake up every single
leaf and over-tidy the garden. And you don’t want to send those raked up leaves
to the dumpster either.
There are plenty of reasons not to over-tidy when preparing
your garden for winter, and here are (6) of them:
1. Create Winter Landscape Interest
When you look out on your backyard on a
winter’s day, the expanse of white landscape need not be bleak. Instead it can
be wonderfully serene, still, and punctuated by the appearance of seedpods left
standing. Sedums are some of those plants that add visual interest, as well as
tall grasses, and even the dried brown seeds on bushes such as lilacs. Fallen
tree branches and hollow logs that stand out like dark sentinels against the
white, can leave us to wondering as we gaze out our windows what wildlife might
be hunkered down for protection there.
2. Consider Wildlife
There are beneficial insects, such as bees,
butterflies and ladybugs, that need to overwinter in your yard, sometimes in
the very leaf litter you were about to rake up and throw away. More and more
gardeners are becoming aware that their yards are home to an entire world of critters
besides themselves. The web of life is interwoven on so many levels, with
insects relying on protection during cold winter months in the thickets of
snow-covered branches, in hollowed logs, under the lowest branches of bushes,
or even under peeling bark high up in tall trees. Some of these insects provide
essential food for birds in the wintertime when insects are scarce.
Native bees are among those insects seeking
protection. Some spend the winter as larvae burrowed into the ground. Others
hide in the stems of grasses or inside tree hollows. Then there are pest-eating
insects like ladybugs, who hibernate in the winter. If you leave them a comfortable
place to sleep, they will be there for you first thing in spring when they can
go to work right away policing your garden for pests.
Not all butterflies migrate to warmer
climes in winter, and those that stay can hide in leaf clutter that the
responsible gardener has thoughtfully left alone. Some survive as caterpillars
hidden in their host plants; they will stay hidden there until spring comes to
warm them up.
You can see how fragile the web of life is
out there in your backyard, and how we must be very vigilant not to destroy it,
for the continued health of the garden.
3. Making Homes for Bird Friends
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| Eastern Bluebirds in the Snow |
Of all the birds that have visited your
feeders throughout the year, some do not migrate south. Instead they choose to stay on and make a go
of it. They find refuge in tree cavities and under bushes, eating winter
berries and what insects they can find. Some birds are insect-eating birds that
cannot survive on feeder seeds alone. Gardeners welcome wrens, nuthatches, pheobes, bluebirds, titmice, as they
consume many of the insects and caterpillar pests that would otherwise wreak
havoc on your spring garden. These birds can find insects hibernating in the
natural habitat you have left for them by not tidying up too much.
4. Caring for the Rose and Perennial Gardens
A heavy layer of leaf mulch is a perfect
way to protect roses from freezing temps. Snow is a great insulation, keeping
perennial beds sheltered from frigid, biting winds that would harm soft
perennial plants. If you live in an area
that freezes but gets little to no snow, it is especially important to have
leaf mulch to pack into your garden beds. Caution: Some perennials will suffer
from rot if too much leaf litter is piled up against them, so be aware of which
plants you are mulching.
5. Saving Essential Nutrients for Next Year’s
Lawn
Your lawn can benefit from the many nutrients
found in that leaf litter, as well. So, too, can the rest of your garden. Leaf mulch also cuts down on weeds and stabilizes soil temperatures. To do
this, instead of raking up leaves, run them over with your lawnmower and save
them in piles. You can store them in plastic bags or bins made of chicken wire.
6. Planning the Spring Vegetable Garden
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| Photo: Hannah O'Leary / OSU Extension Service |
Come spring, you will need compost for your
vegetable garden. Compost consists of not
just food scraps. A large bulk of it can be decaying leaf litter mixed with
manure. Ideally, for every gallon bucket of kitchen scraps and grass clippings you
toss into the pile, you should have three gallon buckets of fall leaves or
straw to cover it with.
Mulch vegetable beds with a thick (6-inch) layer of leaves. Make a blanket of oak leaves to cover fallow vegetable beds in the fall. This will protect the bare soil from hard rainstorms. Slowly over the winter months leaves will break down, to be turned back into the soil come spring.
Composting creates a sort of semi-artificial nutrient cycle.
Yes, the nutrients are eventually recycled back into the soil, but instead of
allowing plant and animal waste to sit around and naturally decompose wherever
it falls, composting makes all the decomposition take place in one spot.
~ Instead of all that work tidying up the garden this autumn, hope you enjoy instead walks through the backyard with your camera, perhaps looking for wildlife in hiding or photographing the artful arrangement of dried plants that nature has waiting for you.
