American homeowners have to make the same decision every autumn: rake everything or do nothing? Most people don’t realize, however, that there are different types of fallen leaves. Some can be beneficial to your garden by feeding your soil and providing habitats for helpful wildlife. On the other hand, some leaves can smother your grass and bring in pests that you don’t want.
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Check PriceThe trick is not deciding to rake everything or nothing at all. The trick is learning to see and read your leaves and making choices that help both your landscape and the local wildlife.
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The Foliage That Benefits Your Garden
Small and delicate leaves from trees such as the cherry, ash, and honey locust quickly break down and form ideal natural mulch. These leaves decompose in 6-8 weeks and give nutrients to your soil. Plus, these leaves won’t ever be thick enough to block sunlight from your grass.
Oak leaves, while being larger, are goldmines for wildlife. Over 500 species of butterflies and moths as caterpillars. Their waxy coating means they take a long time to break down, which helps improve soil quality over time. A two inch layer of oak leaves under shrubs and trees creates a habitat for overwintering beneficial insects that will help control pests in your garden in the spring.
The large maple leaves are perfect for the sweet spot category. They will cover the soil adequately, but because they decompose quickly (typically by late spring) there won’t be any issues. Also, they are loved by salamanders and other moisture-dependent organisms who control slug and snail populations.
The Problematic Leaves That Need To Be Removed
Because black walnut leaves contain juglone, a natural herbicide, they can harm or kill nearby plants, particularly tomatoes, potatoes, and a large variety of flowering plants. Black walnut leaves should be disposed of in a trash bag or composted separately from your garden.
Norway maple, magnolia, and catalpa trees have thick layers of large leaves. These layers can develop into mats that block air and water from the grass roots. A single heavy rain can also turn these layered leaves into soggy blankets that invite fungal diseases and kill the grass underneath.
You should remove any leaves that have disease signs right away. This means any leaves that have tar spot (black spots on maples), anthracnose (brown blotches)), or rust diseases (orange or reddish spots). If you leave any diseased leaves, you will have a reservoir of pathogens that will reinfect your trees in the next growing season.
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The strategy for managing smart leaves
Begin by determining what types of leaves you have and the thickness of their layers. If you can't see the grass blades through the leaf layer, then it is too thick and requires some thinning. Use a mulching mower to chop thick leaf layers into smaller pieces so they decompose quicker and provide better air circulation.
Create specific 'leave zones' under trees, shrubs, and within flower beds where 2-4 inches of mixed leaves provide the ideal habitat for beneficial insects that will be overwintering there. These zones should be located away from your main lawn, while still being close enough so that next spring, the newly-emerged beneficial insects will easily be able to locate your garden.
For wet and shady areas where leaves tend to mat down, rake these leaves but don’t waste them. Instead, move these leaves to sunny and dry areas where they will decompose instead of creating soggy and anaerobic conditions.
Unseen Perks of Wildlife
Did you know that leaf litter boosts a remarkable ecosystem that exists all around us? For instance, a cubic foot of leaf litter contains about 1,000 different organisms, most of them arthropods like spiders and beetles! These incredible critters help manage and control pests in our gardens. When winter and spring come around, many vertebrates offers food to birds and salamanders. Those inverts become food to vertebrates.
In winter, moths and butterflies will pupate in the leaf litter. If you take away all the leaves, you are taking away the pollinators of next season. In studies, yards in which leaves were managed appropriately had 50% more beneficial insects than those that were completely cleaned up.
Fireflies rely on leaf litter to survive the two-year-long stage of their larvae. The enchanting displays of lights in the summer consider undisturbed spots of leaf litter where the firefly larvae capture prey and transform into adults.
Easier Methods for Better Leaf Management
The best product for managing leaf litter is a mulching mower. This type of mower will chop up the leaves to the point where they are small enough to disappear into the grass. When this happens, the leaves will decompose quickly and not create a thick mat. During peak leaf drop, you should run the mulching mower over leaves laying thick on the grass 2 to 3 times.
When trying to keep some leaves in an area, but still reduce the thickness, use a leaf blower to redistribute rather than remove. Blow excess leaves from lawn areas into flower beds and around trees where they help without hurting the grass.
Flexible-tined rakes are better than rigid-tined rakes for lightly raking off the top layer of leaves while leaving the smaller leaves and beneficial organic matter undisturbed.
Creating a Plan for Managing Leaves
As you walk your property, think about how you want to divide it into three zones, with very different priorities in each zone. There are some zones where you want to prioritize the health of the grass, while in others it is more important to provide habitat for wildlife, and in still others there are problem areas that always have issues with blowing leaves. For example, in the front, the lawn and areas where kids play would be a zone where grass health is a priority, while at the back in the corners and underneath the trees would be an area where a wildlife habitat is a priority. There are also areas where the leaves always cause problems, like in wet and shady areas that don't drain well, and these are problem spots where leave issues are always of concern.
In grass-priority zones, leaves or litter with a thickness greater than 1 inch should be chopped or removed. A 2-4 inch mix of leaf litter is acceptable in wildlife zones, remove only diseased leaf material. In problem areas, leaves should be completely removed, however, instead of bagging, relocate them to a better place.
Manage leaves in conjunction with their natural cycles. The most considerable drops are soon after leaves fall, and when they begin to pile up in thick layers. If managed quickly during this time, most problems will be avoided and maximum benefits for wildlife will be preserved.
Managing leaves as a part of your ecosystem will allow you to craft a cleaner landscape, benefit the wildlife, enrich your soil, keep your grass healthy, and do all of this while doing much less work than the traditional method of raking leaves.
