In the next few weeks I am not planning to rake leaves.
Well, that's not entirely true... I will be raking them, but not removing them. I plan to do what I did last year, which is "shape" them into place with the rake, leaving the yard beneath the tree root zones blanketed with natural mulch. By placing them this way, my yard looks tidy and the lawn areas stay lush where there are no tree roots.
Last year, the leaves all decomposed before mid summer, which I know fed the soil under the trees and made lush habitat for the many important insects that like leaf litter. Those insects, I am sure, also helped to arate the soil, which in turns benefitted my aging urban trees.
I also suspect that those same insects provided a lot of food for birds. We had some surprise bird visitors in the spring, including a towhee that showed up in May and stayed for a week, pecking through the leaf litter hungrily.
This morning I opened my email inbox and found a timely message from my friend Kathy M, who sent a link to the Fairfield Weekly newspaper in Connecticut. Pretty cool article there entitled "Leaf It Be" about others who are choosing not to remove the leaves this year. Thanks, Kathy!
Well, that's not entirely true... I will be raking them, but not removing them. I plan to do what I did last year, which is "shape" them into place with the rake, leaving the yard beneath the tree root zones blanketed with natural mulch. By placing them this way, my yard looks tidy and the lawn areas stay lush where there are no tree roots.
Last year, the leaves all decomposed before mid summer, which I know fed the soil under the trees and made lush habitat for the many important insects that like leaf litter. Those insects, I am sure, also helped to arate the soil, which in turns benefitted my aging urban trees.
I also suspect that those same insects provided a lot of food for birds. We had some surprise bird visitors in the spring, including a towhee that showed up in May and stayed for a week, pecking through the leaf litter hungrily.
This morning I opened my email inbox and found a timely message from my friend Kathy M, who sent a link to the Fairfield Weekly newspaper in Connecticut. Pretty cool article there entitled "Leaf It Be" about others who are choosing not to remove the leaves this year. Thanks, Kathy!
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