Should I leave the leaves?
With autumn in full swing, what’s the best thing to do with the leaves? Should you leave the leaves or something else? Jean Vernon explores.
When we think of autumn leaves it either conjures the beauty of the fiery foliage fireworks as the trees shed their cloak and slip towards winter, or we envisage the huge task of sweeping them up on a rare sunny day.
There are of course places where you don’t want leaves. They can block the gutters causing water to overflow and create damp issues. Leaves on the path can create a slip hazard. Leaves on the lawn can encourage fungi to grow, and other lawn problems. And heaven forbid the leaves fall on your neighbour’s artificial grass! What a to do that would cause.
But do we really need to spend hours and hours sweeping them up? And if we do what then??
Leaves are a wonder of nature. As they senesce and fall to the ground, they take waste products from the plant. Leaves are food for all sorts of creatures that devour rotting material and when piled up they are not only great fun for scuffling through on a sunny day but they also provide shelter for all sorts of other creatures. Instead of seeing leaves as a chore, embrace them, they are a vital part of nature’s magical cycle and a wonderful ingredient for all sorts of wonderful creations.
Under the hedge
Pile leaves up under the hedge, where they will protect the roots of your hedge plants, slowly break down feeding the hedge naturally, attract beetles and other mini-beasts to shelter there and encourage hedgehogs to feed and if appropriate maybe even shelter under the hedge. Leaves harbour all sorts of helpful creatures. Slugs might lay their eggs there, but those eggs are food for the ground beetles and hedgehogs. The layer of leaves is a natural mulch that sustains all sorts of microbes including mycorrhizal fungi that live symbiotically with our plants. Keep piling the leaves up under the hedge and you create a natural haven for all sorts of wildlife and somewhere for the ground feeding birds to forage.
Nooks and crannies
Leaves blow into all sorts of nooks and crannies where they provide safe overwinter sites for bumblebees, and other precious creatures. If the hollow holds water it creates a natural hoverfly lagoon, the perfect breeding site for hoverflies which are both precious pollinators and free ‘pest’ control for the garden. Leave that puddle of rotting leaves, it’s a haven for minibeasts and much, much more.
Leaves in water
In nature no one dredges the leaves from pools and streams, but in our gardens a tree load of leaves can create hazards for pond life as the rotting leaves may break down and release nutrients and gasses into the water. If you haul the leaves out then leave them on the edge of the water to allow any creatures to work their way back home.
Leaves on the lawn
Possibly the only place where leaving the leaves might not be the best idea is if they are smothering the lawn and that’s because they will starve the grass of light and could weaken it. However, a scattering of leaves is not a problem. If you are really worried you could crank the mower blades higher and whizz over the lawn on a bright, dry day. The mower will pick up many of the leaves, chopping them up and pushing them into the grass (or leaf) catcher. Those that end up back on the grass will slowly feed the lawn as they break down. The shredded leaves in the grass box can be added to the compost bin, where they will be food for mini beasts and micro-organisms that will feed on the plant material and create a nutrient rich, crumbly soil conditioner and mulch that will feed the soil and feed your plants.
Leaves in the woodland
If you need a reminder of the cycle of life, simply take a little wander into the woods in the autumn. The piles of leaves under the trees and on the paths do their own thing in the woods, they always have. Notice how earthy it all smells and how springy and spongy it is underfoot. That’s all the leaf litter breaking down underfoot and returning their goodness to the earth. As it breaks down it releases nutrients that feed the woodland plants. It also forms a matrix of fungal strands, that is integrated throughout the woodland connecting the trees and other plants to the soil and communicating widely.
Excess leaves
If you have lots and lots of leaves you can recycle them into a leaf-rich mulch by making something called leaf mould. I wonder if that’s because the resulting material is a matrix of micro-organisms and especially fungi, ie mould? It’s easy to do this, you can bag up piles of wet leaves into large bin bags (use old ones so that you aren’t creating more waste), tie the bags and poke holes in the bottom. Place these behind the shed for a couple of years and then use the amazing resulting, rich material as a mulch or a soil conditioner. It will feed the soil and that in turn will feed your plants.
Natural chicken bedding
I love garden leaves for all those reasons and more. I like to gather them up and use them as bedding in my hen house. Leaves make it easier to clean them out and the chickens seem to love nestling down at night time. I also line the floor of their pen with lots of leaves. It gives them something to rustle through looking for bugs, but it also makes the house easier to clean out because as the birds poop, it gets mixed up with the leaves. Then when they are cleaned out, all the poopy leaf mixture is added to the compost bin. The high nutrient mix feeds the microbes that fire the compost heap and ensure that the resulting compost is rich, crumbly and amazingly rich in plant nutrients. It’s an amazing way to improve the soil, keep my hens happy and healthy and closes the recycling loop in my garden.