What to do with your fallen leaves

Many trees provide a wondrous show in the fall, with leaves in hues of red, orange and gold. Once the show is over, what should you do with the fallen leaves that are piling up around your yard? Here are some options.

Leave them in your garden beds 

A great strategy for garden beds is just to leave the leaves where they fall. A layer of three to five inches of leaves is good. Be sure to leave space around the trunks of trees and shrubs so they get air.

Leaves provide many benefits! See below.

Leaves on your lawn: two options

Don’t allow thick layers of leaves to remain on your lawn. Leaves, especially wet leaves, can thin your lawn in a very short time.

Fallen leaves prevent sunlight from reaching your turf. They smother the grass, preventing water from evaporating and eliminating air exchange. The combination of wet plants and low oxygen can cause fungus, mold and disease, essentially rotting your lawn.

1. Rake leaves into garden beds

Rake or blow leaves at least once a week during peak leaf fall. Raking more frequently does not take much more time because frequent removal is much easier than waiting to remove all the leaves at once. See below for tips on how to make leaf raking easier.

2. Mow thin layers into smaller pieces

Your lawn could benefit from a thin layer of leaves. “By mowing over the fallen leaves to turn them into smaller pieces, the leaves will actually enhance the lawn’s fertility, not kill it off,” Dr. Thomas Nikoai of Michigan State University told the Christian Science Monitor.

Compost the leaves

You could also create leaf piles and let the leaves decompose. Or you could add them to your compost pile, combining them with grass clippings for high-quality compost that provides both carbon and nitrogen to feed your soil. Large leaves will break down more quickly if shredded, but will break down eventually if allowed time.

Do not compost the following, but dispose in yard waste

• Leaves from any tree with a foliar disease, such as fruit trees, ornamental cherries and plums, or dogwoods with anthracnose. Disease spores can over-winter on fallen leaves, surviving the composting process and infecting your trees again in the spring.
• Leaves of conifers and broad-leaf evergreens. They take a long time to compost.

Put them out with your yard waste

You could send fallen leaves off with your municipal yard waste so they can be commercially composted. But do you really want to rake up all your leaves and then give them away, losing all the benefits they provide?

Don’t send your leaves to the landfill

In our area, most of us have the option for leaves to be commercially composted. Disposing of leaves is such a waste of a valuable resource!

Leaves have many benefits

Leaves provide important shelter for beneficial insects

Bees, butterflies and moths that pollinate your plants, as well as insects such as parasitic wasps that help control pests, depend on leaves in the winter.

Max Ferlauto, a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, did research that looked at the impact of autumn yard maintenance on overwintering insects. Ferlauto pursued this research topic because “we are seeing a decline in insect abundance and diversity, especially in urban areas,” he told OSU Master Gardeners.

We know to plant flowers and other native plants that provide nectar for adult pollinators and other beneficial insects, Ferlauto said. And many of us know that the larval stage of pollinators feeds on the leaves of these native plants. We know less about protecting vulnerable dormant stages in the winter, such as the egg or pupa.

As part of his research, Ferlauto retained leaf litter in yard areas where leaves had been removed in prior years. Moth emergence in the spring increased by 83%.

Ferlauto believes that leaf litter helps both insects that overwinter in leaf litter as well as those that overwinter underground. For the latter, leaves may act like a blanket to insulate the ground.

“One of the most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the winter cover they need.” said Justin Wheeler of the Xerces Society. “The vast majority of butterflies and moths overwinter in the landscape as an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or adult. In all but the warmest climates, these butterflies use leaf litter for winter cover.” Bumble bees also rely on leaf litter protection, Wheeler added, along with spiders, worms, beetles, mites and more that provide food for birds and other critters.

Leaves are valuable mulch

Leaves are full of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, that feed your trees and shrubs. They help suppress weeds that sprout in winter and spring, and they also retain soil moisture. Leaf mulch protects the soil and plant roots from extreme cold and heavy rain, reducing soil compaction and runoff.

Leaves improve soil life

Leaves “feed a vast number of microbes in the soil, which are actually the most important crop you can grow, considering that all plant life in your yard depends on healthy soil biology,” said Derek Markham in Treehugger.

Leaf mulch is free!

Why buy commercial mulch when you already have valuable mulch in your yard?

Tips on how to make leaf raking easier

Choose a good rake

Look for one that is comfortable to hold so you won’t be hunching over. And choose a wide rake. Narrow rakes won’t gather as many leaves at a time. Look for a rake with “no clog” tines so you won’t have to keep pulling leaves out of the rake.

Wear the right gear

Durable work gloves will protect your hands from blisters. A long-sleeved shirt and long pants will protect your skin. Consider a hat if it’s sunny, and wear a dust mask if you have allergies or asthma.

Save time with tarps

Spread out the tarp and rake leaves onto it. You can drag the tarp around your yard to pick up additional piles of leaves. If you need to stop raking until the next day, you can tie the tarp shut so the leaves you have already raked won’t blow away.

Rake before it rains

If rain is in the forecast, don’t delay raking the leaves you’ve been meaning to get to. When rain makes leaves are soggy and dense, they clump together and clog the rake. It makes the job much harder.

Take care of yourself

Keep your back straight and use smaller movements rather than big sweeping motions. Avoid overreaching your arms and pull the rake back gently to save energy. Take breaks and don’t overdo it. You can always come back the next day to finish the job.

Use the wind

If you have to rake on a windy day, rake your leaves in the same direction the wind is blowing. The wind will help move dry leaves along.