Fall Cleanup
Many of us just can’t seem to help ourselves from wanting to tidy up our lawns and gardens at the end of the season. This often entails clearing our properties of leaves - that bit of nature essential to the survival of butterflies, moths, and other insects. Another common step is to cut down all the dead plant stalks - robbing some native bees of overwinter habitat. But there are other options that are much more eco-friendly, less work, and may even save you money.
Leave the Leaves!
You may be used to raking, blowing, and dragging your leaves to the street each fall (or having a lawn care company do it for you). They then get picked up by a big diesel truck and hauled away to a large compost site. But there’s a much better solution - Leave the Leaves in your yard! Why do this?
Free Mulch. Leaves form a natural mulch that helps to suppress weeds and add nutrients to the soil. That means less wood mulch to buy and move around in the spring!
A Healthier Lawn. Mulched tree leaves provide fertilizer for your grass.
A Cleaner Lake. When leaves are removed, they’re often dumped on the street for the Village to pick up. This can result in phosphorus leaching from the leaves and flowing into Lake Mendota, leading to algae blooms - yuck!
Vital Wildlife Habitat. Removing leaves eliminates vital wildlife habitat. Butterflies, moths, and even bumble bees use the fallen leaves for winter cover. And birds love foraging in leaf litter for all those insects!
This fall, grab a glass of wine, kick back on your deck, and smile as you see all those leaves still in your yard!
Leaf Mulch for Garden Beds
Whole leaves can be used for mulch and are the most eco-friendly option. Leaves can also be shredded, but that may kill insects (like butterfly larvae and bumble bees) that live in the leaves. However, shredding helps the leaves break down easier and may create a tidier nicer look than whole leaves (of course, that’s in the eye of the beholder!). Both whole and shredded leaves can be added to garden beds instead of wood mulch. You can also age leaf mulch to create leaf mold (icky name, but an amazing product!).
Check out the City of Madison’s page for more information on how to get started with leaving your leaves! These other sites provide great information on how to shred your leaves using a lawn mower, weed wacker, or leaf shredder and also how to turn that mulch into leaf mold.
Leaf Mulch for Healthy Lawns
‘But what about my lawn’, you may ask? Leaf mulch is also great for grass. Consider mowing the leaves directly into the lawn to return nutrients back into the soil. One study by Michigan State University found that lawns where leaves were mulched were healthier than the lawns receiving no mulched leaves. Indeed, lawns with mulched leaves needed less fertilizer and had fewer weeds! MSU reported nearly a 100% decrease in dandelions and crabgrass after adopting the leaf mulch practice for just three years. And did I mention that leaves are free!
Leaves and Stalks for Bees and Butterflies
Leave Your Leaves if you want to see the beautiful butterflies, bumble bees, and moths in the spring. Many of these insects burrow in the leaves or in the soil under the leaves to sleep through the winter. Toss your leaves and you may toss or kill these beautiful and beneficial animals! Here are just a few of the insects that rely on leaves to make it through the winter:
Bumble Bees: The queens burrow just below the soil in the fall to overwinter.
Fritillary Butterflies: Their caterpillars overwinter in fall leaves.
Luna Moths: These moths overwinter as a cocoon in fall leaves.
Additionally, many small native bees use dried perennial flower stalks to overwinter. So don’t cut down your dried flower stalks in the fall (and educate your neighbors if they think it looks messy!). Instead, wait until late spring (until we’ve had at least a few 50 degree days) to cut them down. This gives the tiny bees a chance to wake up from their winter snooze. If you need to remove them before temperatures rise to 50 degrees, loosely pile the stalks in a corner of your yard and wait until the temperatures get warmer before disposing of them. This will give the bees a chance to walk up and leave the stalks before they’re shredded by the Village during yard waste pickup.
Keep Leaves Out of the Street
If you have leaves that you need the Village to dispose of, please, please, please, do your part to help keep Lake Mendota clean by keeping leaves off the streets!
Leaves release phosphorus when they break down. When left in the street, that phosphorus can make its way into Lake Mendota leading to algae blooms (yuck!). Keeping leaves off the street can reduce the amount of phosphorus in urban stormwater by 80%!
So, if you don’t use your leaves for mulch, please at least keep them out of the streets! The Village asks that you place leaves on the curb or in your yard along the edge of the street at least 5 feet from obstructions like mailboxes, trees or telephone poles.