Leave the leaves — a short introduction to this piece.
Leave the leaves: Quick Notes
It used to be that we all blew our leaves (or, if we were really old fashioned, raked them) completely away from our properties. We either bagged them and had them hauled away or maybe like me, your town collected them from you and made them into compost at its municipal yard. In the really old days, maybe you burned them.
But as we are becoming more environmentally aware, we realize that removing leaves is not smart. First of all, sending the leaves away is sending away free mulch. The leaves that fall into your flower and shrub beds are perfect insulation. Why remove it and then pay for mulch?
Next, numerous overwintering things–insects, butterflies, spiders, –all beneficial things that you want in your garden overwinter in those leaves. Remove them and you have a much less healthy garden.
But there are exceptions. You never want your lawn to be left like this! Leaves on the lawn kill the grass. So you definitely want to remove the leaves here.
Also if you have a ground cover, particularly one made of plants (sedum, moss, juniper), you’ll not want a heavy leaf cover on those. I don’t think that needs further explanation.
So leaves as a mulch in the flower and shrub beds–fantastic! Leaves on the lawn or your ground cover? They still need to be moved or relocated to the borders!
Leave the leaves appears here to highlight key ideas for readers.
