It’s a cliche of the fall: dad outside, raking leaves from the lawn.
As the temperatures start to get a little chillier, those beautiful leaves fall from the trees, leaving your lawn and sidewalk coated in various hues of reds, oranges, and browns.
While it might be fun to jump into those piles of crunchy leaves, we’re a little less fond of them on our lawns.
Why? Because they tend to turn a bit soggy, a bit mulchy, and cover up those precise green lines we’ve mowed into the grass. Some people also believe that a thick layer of leaves prevents oxygen and light from reaching your glass, inhibiting its photosynthesis and thus its growth and general health.
However, scientists have been speaking out against the autumnal practice of leaf raking, pointing out the huge positives of leaving leaf litter on your lawn to biodegrade naturally.
Susan Barton, a professor of horticulture at the University of Delaware, explained in the New York Times exactly why we should hold off raking our leaves:
“A forest has the richest soil there is, and that happens because leaves are falling off the trees and decomposing right there and organic materials are going back into the soil. We should be doing that in all of our landscapes, but we’re not.”
In a paper published in the journal BMC Plant Biology, researchers from Guizhou Normal University, China, explained how the biodegrading leaves improve the composition of lawns and soils. After exploring the chemistry of leaf litter, and the microorganisms present in soil at different stages of leaf litter decomposition, they recommend leaving leaves to degrade on their own to the benefit of the nutrients in your garden.
The leaf litter may not only be really good for your lawn, enriching it with vital nutrients to keep it healthy year-round, but it also provides a cosy winter home for all kinds of insects and small animals.
In the same New York Times article, David Mizejewski – a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation – explained that the layer of leaf litter is an ecosystem in itself. Underneath your leaves there could be a whole range of different creatures calling your lawn home, including bugs, amphibians, and reptiles.
Mizejewski noted that leaf litter is actually a crucial part of the life cycle for many species of butterfly and moth. The beautiful winged creatures cocoon for the winter among the leaf litter, before emerging in the spring in their stunning forms.
While butterflies and moths are a treat for our eyes, they are also important for the birds that call them dinner.
So not only can clearing your leaf litter destroy the habitats and end the lives of these creatures, it can also have negative effects on local bird populations, as well as plants that rely on the creatures for fertilization, as Mizejewski explains:
“When we are overly zealous about getting rid of every single leaf in our neighborhoods, we literally wipe out entire populations of these pollinators. These are species that can live right alongside us if we just give them some habitat.”
While leafy lawns may sometimes be considered a bit of an eyesore, it’s important that we learn to love them – for the benefit of our gardens, our environment, and our local ecosystems.
And by avoiding those mornings raking in the cold, your body might thank you too!
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.