By Stacy Kershaw
Did you miss the fall clean up rush? Are there still loads of leaves in your garden beds clinging to the spent blossoms of your Black Eyed Susan and hydrangea flowers?
Don’t despair! Join the latest movement: Don’t clean up your yard! Why you ask?? Pollinators and birds thrive with fall leaves and dead plant material.
Leaf litter is essential to the survival of moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, worms, beetles, and bumblebees. Many butterflies, moths, and bumble bees need leaf litter to protect them from the winter’s harsh temperatures. And those insects are essential for birds.
While leaving whole leaves on your garden beds will help birds and insects, they are NOT good for your lawn. You can mow the leaves directly on the lawn, but only when they are dry. They will decompose over the winter and help fertilize your grass come spring.
If you haven’t cut your perennial plants down to the ground–don’t sweat it! They will also leave a fabulous habitat for all those beneficial insects, butterflies, and moths. Besides, ornamental grasses and other perennials have seed heads that look beautiful with fresh snow atop, as well as provide food for seed-eating birds.
I will leave you with this last thought….a quote I absolutely love and abide by:
…I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air. Nathaniel Hawthorne, 10th October 1842
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