It's autumn in Nashville. The temperature is cooler, there's been more rain, the sky is an intense blue and the trees in my garden are a turning a delightful golden color.
As wonderful as fall is there's also the infuriating, obnoxious and ear damaging noise of leaf blowers. Every fall my neighbors pay lawn service contractors to haul away one of our most valuable ecological resources-fallen leaves.
We don't have to have our leaves hauled away! We can Leave the Leaves for Wildlife! I am challenging you to think differently about fall cleanup and take the challenge to leave your leaves.
Why? Because fallen leaves are one of our most valuable resources for the health of our gardens and our environment.Leaves can:
- protect your plants’ roots from drying out or freezing
- suppress weeds
- preserve soil moisture
- decay into leaf mold which is a great soil amendment
- return nutrients to the soil
- shelter seeds so they can bloom
- be part of a soft landing for insects
- btw,
a thin layer on your lawn will not smother it, instead it can do all
the things we've listed in this list for your lawn
And...you
can still have fun with leaves. Build a brush shelter with your
favorite little kid. Use branches, sticks and stems, and leaves to make
brush piles that will shelter native wildlife. It's also okay to jump
into a leaf pile.
Leaves are a significant part of a soft landing. "Soft
landings are created by planting native, shade-adapted plants, grasses, ferns, and leaf litter under under keystone trees (or any
other regionally appropriate native tree). These plantings provide
critical shelter and habitat for one or more life cycle stages of moths,
butterflies, and beneficial insects such as bumble bees, fireflies,
lacewings, and beetles. In addition to plants, soft landings also include leaf litter, duff, and plant debris. " (Heather Holm) Soft landings also provide critical shelter for toads, lizards and turtles and mammals.
 |
soft landing for
|
I wish I could convince our neighbors that fallen leaves are valuable and not the enemy. Their leaf blower brigades are here and they're blowing all the leaves off their lawns and their foundation beds onto tarps that are emptied into trucks and hauled away.
They return weekly to wage a noisy
and destructive war against every leaf and small twig that might have
landed on the lawn. This war against nature is costly for the
environment; the fertilized and manicured mono-cultural lawn is made
even more valueless for wildlife and the ecosystem. There's nothing in a
mono-cultural lawn for insects or birds to eat and they've eliminated
all the leaves that could have been a part of the soft landing.
People
argue that the leaves will smother their lawn and plantings? I have a
bee friendly lawn and so far, it hasn't smothered my wildflowers, my
sedges or my perennials. But, if that's a concern, then do what I do
when leaves are too deep.
What do I do...I gently rake
or kindly sweep the
leaves that fall on my walkways and driveway into the garden beds. I
relocate especially deep piles of leaves by gently raking them onto a
tarp and moving them to a wilder part of the
garden. But, most leaves stay where they fall.
My shallow clay soil is richer and healthier from 40 years of letting leaves stay where they fall. Decaying leaves have mulched my wildflowers, added organic matter to the soil,
improved the soil structure, and provided nutrients for the microbial communities. And it doesn't cost a thing.
I challenge you to leave your leaves, at the very least some of your leaves. There are so many great reasons why.
 |
| You never know what's on the back of a fallen leaf until you look |
But you don't have to take my word for it! Saturday, November 15 starting at 10 am you can learn more about the science of leaving the leaves and celebrate the season At Warner Park Nature Center.
I plan to be there and i hope to see some of you there, too.
There are so many animals that live in leaves: spiders, snails, worms,
beetles, millipedes, mites, and more—that support the chipmunks,
turtles, birds, and amphibians that rely on these insects for food.
It’s easy to see how important leaves really are to sustaining the
natural web of life.(Xerces Society source)
xoxogail
Take the Taking Care of Wildlife In Our Gardens Challenge
The
first part of this challenge is to do something, even lots of
things, each month that support the critters living in our gardens.
Gardening with native wildflowers, shrubs and trees that make sense for
our ecoregion is a good place to start or continue (as the case may be).
Plants and their pollinators are a classic example of mutualism: they
have coevolved through evolutionary time in a reciprocal beneficial
relationship. This is also true for other critters that visit and live
in our gardens.
Activities that increase our
knowledge of
the natural world are equally as valuable. Helping others learn about
nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can
do.
The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your
blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve.
Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! Why post
it? Because positive publicity is needed to
educate our friends, neighbors and communities about how important even
the smallest changes we make as gardeners can be for pollinators, birds,
insects and mammals, including humans, that live all around us.
Why now? My
neighborhood is changing. Yours might be, too. Every day an older home
along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern
cedar and hackberry trees are cut down. Insects, birds, even mammals
lose their home site and food supplies when we lose trees. During construction
soil is compacted by bulldozers, trucks and piles of
debris cause runoff; surface runoff that can carry pollution to
streams and rivers. It's
important that our neighbors and our community have information about how important trees
are to our ecosystem. Trees contribute to their environment by providing
oxygen, improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water,
preserving soil, and supporting wildlife.
In place of the "bee
lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis,
fleabane,
Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, native grasses (in my
neighborhood it's poverty oat grass) and sedges, they're being sodded
with non-native grasses. These monoculture turf lawns contribute nothing environmentally. Here's what we lose when our diverse lawns are replaced with pristine turf grass:
- Gone
are the lightening bugs.
- Gone are the ground dwelling/nesting native
bees.
- Gone is the habitat for insects, spiders and other critters.
- Gone
is plant diversity.
- Gone are trees that provided for hundreds of moths,
butterflies and other insects.
- Gone are the nesting sites for
woodpeckers, hummingbirds, Chickadees and other birds.
- Gone is a healthy foodweb.
It breaks my
heart.
We can't stop the progmess, but,
maybe we can make a lot of educational noise and help our new neighbors
see the value in providing for critters and ultimately helping the environment.
A gardener can hope!
xoxoGail
Here's an
incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your
garden, and things you can do for and/or in your community. But don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check
out the
internet for ideas.
Looking for ways to get involved go here for a list of environmental advocacy groups.
Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.
Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.
Get in the garden with your children and grandchildren.
Give nature books as baby shower gifts (Nature books for infants and toddlers) Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.
Plant
your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after
they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife
so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.
Plant
more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban
landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that
trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)
Plant
for bloom from late spring to early winter. Bees are most active from
February to November (longer in mild climates) late winter blooming Hamamelis vernalis
and the earliest spring ephemerals (like the toothworts, hepaticas,
spring beauties, and False rue-anemeone) are perfect plants for a
variety of pollinators.
Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.
Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double
flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and
no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native
wildflowers”
If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of
space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers.
You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.
Make a rain garden in low spots to collect and mitigate runoff.
Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden.
Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.
Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.
Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.
Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and
seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as
you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave
a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and
butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from
the trees in the fall and need a soft landing site and a place to live over the winter.
Allow
a fallen tree to remain in the garden. Limbs on the ground are a
perfect shelter for small animals such as rabbits, chipmunks and
squirrels and a habitat for beetles, termites and other insects.
Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles.
Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs". Bugs are also good
bird, toad and small critter food. Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and they're great bird food!
Add nesting boxes for birds.
Turn
off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm.
This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes,
insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)
Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.
Keep a nature journal: You can observe visitors to your water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces.
Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)
Join WildOnes even if there's no local group you can join the national organization. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)
Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee, Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)
Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.
If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.
Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program. Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program
Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.
Take an online course on designing with native plants.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."
Read!
There are hundreds of books on gardening for wildlife, the environment,
and rewilding our world. There are delightful blogs with wonderful and
informative articles.If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)
Join the Xerces Society.
Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info.
Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)
Support
trees by joining the effort to make sure developers don't remove more
trees than are necessary for their project. Work to make sure there are
tree removal permits and that they are actually enforced in your
community.
Please take the challenge! xoxogail
Gail Eichelberger
is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers
and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she
grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.
