There, fixed it!

Here’s another one.

Or it could be fixed with just two words: “Where possible…..”

If only there were room for 2-3 more words in this ubiquitous meme, so that conscientious, nature-loving folks would know to ask: gee, I wonder WHERE it’s possible to leave the leaves and where maybe it’s best NOT to. Those extra words create interest in learning more and reduce the judginess a bit.

So where CAN you leave leaves (to benefit wildlife) without doing harm? Lots of places, maybe most places, but not:

  • Lawns. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden says: “Lawns…can be smothered by a heavy covering of leaves. If you are trying to cultivate a vigorous lawn in a spot that receives a lot of leaf drop, it is best to remove most of it. A light amount of leaves can enrich the soil without smothering the plants. To further help the fallen leaves do their winter work, you can chop them with a lawn mower. Again, consider moving excess leaves from your lawn to appropriate garden beds or your compost bin instead of putting them out on the curb.  And the University of Minnesota says: “10-20% coverage of your lawn might be okay, but I certainly would make sure the leaves aren’t covering any more than that.”
  • On top of garden plants that could be smothered. Also from the BBG: “If you have a garden bed with small plants and large fallen leaves (bigger than those on your garden plants) or a large volume of them, the leaf drop could smother the plants. In BBG’s Rock Garden, for instance, there are several beds with very small evergreen succulent plants like stonecrops and hens and chicks. I move the fallen leaves from those beds so they don’t block the plants’ access to sunlight and air circulation, especially important for evergreens, which don’t go into winter dormancy.” (Sedums are the primary garden plants that I keep clear of fallen leaves, but also lamb’s ear.)
  • Sidewalks or other hardscape. Safety first!

Plus, you’d need to remove leaves where you’re gardening in the fall, doing things like planting bulbs or rearranging plants – things I’ve done in the last few days.

Leave them until when?

And if you DO leave the leaves in your garden beds, is it okay to ever remove them?  Doug Tallamy was asked about the common advice that leaves be left until nighttime temps are 50+ and responded that: “There’s absolutely no ecological basis for that general rule… Every species comes out on its own schedule, from early spring to late summer, or even September. So there’s no magic time when you can go out and do whatever you want in your landscape and not disturb what’s there.”

So again, it’s complicated. And while entomologists debate on the timing, gardeners like me are pondering how to implement their advice in actual garden beds.  Because fall and EARLY spring are the best times to see and remove weeds, rearrange plants, and so on, before all the new growth arrives that we don’t want to step on. (More about that in “If we stop doing garden clean-up, is it a garden anymore?”