Trust in nature – and stop raking up your garden leaves | Alys Fowler
www.theguardian.com
Yes, the fallen foliage can be messy. But the trees know just what they’re doing – and they won’t thank you for interfering, writes Alys Fowler

Some choice quotes from the article:

[S]pent leaves that flutter to the ground aren’t a waste product. They are rich in carbon and play an essential role for the tree and the ecology it supports.

The leaves act as a physical barrier for soil, keeping it and its many microbes insulated, and also for the tree roots, as the wet mats of autumn leaves shelter the fragile top layer from the drying winds.

Many, many things live in these dead leaf layers: caterpillars of moths and butterflies, their chrysalises, beetles, centipedes, springtails, woodlice and spiders … and doesn’t the blackbird know it, rustling through the leaves?

No one loves wet autumn leaves more than earthworms, though. Sensing one of their favourite things, they start to work on incorporating them into the soil. Earthworms line their homes with autumn leaves, using them for bedding and then, because they are good housekeepers, they eat them as they break down.

Leave the leaves be: they are not a mess, a waste or a hindrance – they are life and vital with it.

    • Auzy@beehaw.org
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’ve actually realised the same… A month ago, I’ve bought thousands of flower seeds and just seeded my whole lawn and told my housemate to stop mowing.

      Front lawn is already full of small flowers (and in another month, hoping by mid summer), since I went overboard, hoping they’ve overtaken all the grass.

      Also, planning to seed bomb the nature strips around me lol… Going to buy up 20 packets or more of random seeds and sprinkle them around my block

      • Onihikage@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Make sure the seeds you buy are for local varieties of plants! Local grasses, flowers, trees, bushes, even so called weeds as long as they’re native to the area! Weeds aren’t real, we made it up; there is only native and invasive. All plants serve a purpose in their natural habitat!

        • Auzy@beehaw.org
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yep. I’ve been ordering seeds online only listed as native to Australia. Same as the fruit trees and such I have started growing in my yard.

          Not sure if they’re local to my exact area btw, but native to Australia, apparently yes.