nwf leaves

Somehow, the National Wildlife Federation’s 2014 blog post “Leave the Leaves for Wildlife” has gone viral this year, and not just on the Internet. Its popular chore-relieving advice is being repeated widely on television, too.

Unfortunately, this part of the NWF’s advice hasn’t gone viral – the qualifier:

A leaf layer several inches deep is a natural thing in any area where trees naturally grow. The leaf layer is its own mini ecosystem!  (Emphasis certainly not in the original.)

So the leaf-leaving advice is about woodlands, not gardens, and certainly not lawn. And notice that the photo illustrating the post shows disembodied, out-of-context leaves, not a garden. Yet the original story ends with this misdirect:

Remember, the less time you have to spend doing the back-breaking work of raking up your leaves, the more time you have to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather outside and the wildlife visiting your garden!

And the misdirect worked, turning this forest management advice into really bad gardening advice. 

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Womensday, like the Weather Channel and many other sites, repeated the NWF’s statements about benefits to wildlife and promise of less work, with no mention of the fact that this advice applies to natural areas, not actual yards. The stock photos complete the misdirect that turns the story into bad gardening advice.

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Above, another example, from Upworthy. Also spreading bad advice? Science Daily.

Yet! I found some news organizations that did some actual reporting.

An NBC affiliate in Texas asked someone local who knows something about gardening, a landscaping company owner:

East Texas’ Wilhite Landscaping owner James Wilhite said lawns should still be kept up, though.”Leaves are a very important part of our ecosystem and it’s got a place in the forest and you may have a natural area in your yard where you’d like to set up habitat,” says owner James Wilhite. “In the middle of your lawn may not be the best place for habitat for wildlife.”

Tech Times added an important caveat:

  1. Let them stay where they fall. The lawn probably would not mind if one chops the leaves using a mulching mower.

Fox in Minneapolis illustrated the story with video of people mulch-mowing their lawns and wisely mentioned fungus from too many leaves on lawn, and neighbors who may not approve of the no-raking look.

A writer for Huffington Post did an excellent job:

But admittedly, a very thick layer of dead leaves under certain conditions could harm your lawn — especially if they’ll be covered with snow all winter. Luckily, there are alternatives that are still much more environmentally friendly than chucking them in the landfill.

For one, you can turn the leaves into mulch by shredding them with a lawn mower until they’ve been chopped down into dime-size pieces and you can see the grass through them. The smaller pieces can break down more quickly, and evidence suggests they’ll help return nutrients to the soil and can even help prevent weed growth.

And the smart people at Detroit News knew enough to consult an expert!

Rebecca Finneran, a horticulture educator with Michigan State University Extension, sees mulching as the way to go. Grinding up the leaves via a mower and letting the remains stay on the ground allows for the benefits of fertilization, without the dead spots in a lawn that might occur if leaves sit in place all winter.

“You pulverize the leaves into little tiny pieces,” she said. “They sift down around the turf plants and provide nutrients … It ends up being very beneficial to lawns.”

When leaves are allowed to sit during an extended period of time in the winter, they create problems for owners to deal with in the spring.

“They don’t kill the lawn, but they tend to smother patches of it out,” Finneran said.

Another strike against the Wildlife Fund’s recommendation: Heavy, wet leaves can clog storm drains, which can lead to backups and flooding. Many municipalities ask residents to help keep drains clear of leaves in the fall.

For more information on mulching, MSU Extension offers a variety of tips.

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The lesson here may be that gardeners should be wary of gardening advice from experts in something other than gardening. The author of the NWF blog post is, after all, “a naturalist, author, blogger and national media personality with National Wildlife Federation.”

More news outlets should be wary, too, and maybe next time hire an actual garden writer to do the story.