Leave the leaves….. an altogether new concept for many people to wrap their heads around. Although mother nature has been telling us what to do we insist that we know better. When we remove leaf fall from our gardens we disrupt the nutrient cycle. Plants absorb nutrients in the soil in order to aid their growth. Each leaf contains these nutrients and when we do not allow them to break down naturally in our garden beds we rob Peter to pay Paul. Beyond the depletion of our native soils we are depriving native fauna of nesting sites and nesting material. So start changing the way you think about leaf fall and leave the leaves.

We have written about this topic in the past and the New York Times has posted an excellent and thorough article about the how’s and why’s in leaf management.