expert say do n’t get free of those fallen leaves on your lawn this time of year , as if you remove them you will be missing out on lots of free vitamins for your dirt . farewell are full of important food let in nitrogen , carbon , atomic number 15 , and potassium . This raw fertilizer is neat for your lawn and the small critters that live in your garden .
You should n’t abandon your grass completely , as a layer of utter leaf that is too thick will block the tripping levels , killing the sess underneath . or else , you should aim for a thin layer , and consider cutting them up with a lawn mower into a mulch so they decompose more quickly . The mulch layer can even prevent Mary Jane from growing and better drainage .
" Those nutrients are being returned to the grunge , " Susan Barton , a prof and extension medical specialist in landscape painting horticulture at the University of Delaware , toldNPR . " But in all probability even more important than that , it ’s the organic topic . It ’s the fact that you ’ve got this tissue that then eventually decay and improve the soil wellness . "
Bykeeping the leavesyou’ll also be doing the wildlife a party favour too . invertebrate like spider and worm will all benefit from a home ground of moist folio , in spell providing a meal for those higher up the food Sir Ernst Boris Chain , includingbatsandbirds . The natural fertiliser that these leaves make will also ignore down on the need for chemical substance pesticide and fertilizers , further benefiting the dirt ball population , specially pollinator such as bee . Depending on where you live , you may even be benefiting animals like box turtle and chipmunks too .
By not bag the leaves , you ’ll also be cut down on waste . Every yr , 8 million tonnes of leaves finish up in landfill , with yard debris responsible for 13 percent of all solid waste in the US . If you do want to collect them , pile them around the base of trees and shrubs .
" Leaves in the forest leave about 50 to 80 percent of the nutrients that trees receive . No one is going into the wood to clean the farewell . On top of that , impart protect the point of moisture that get to the tree and also determine the grime temperature . So they ’re like gold for tree , " Melissa Hopkins of the National Audubon Society toldNPRin 2011 .
This is part of a grownup move towardssustainabilityand get the great unwashed to expect at leaves as a raw imagination rather than an inconvenience .
As summarized byNational Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewskiin 2020 : “ fall leaves offer a twofold welfare . leafage form a natural mulch that helps suppress weeds and at the same clip fertilize the soil as it break down . Why spend money on mulch and fertilizer when you may make your own ? ”
