Leave as Many of the Leaves as You Can!
We realize that in our neighborhoods, raking the leaves is often considered to be a necessary part of property upkeep. Did you know that when you clean up your leaves pollinators who overwinter in the leaf matter are disrupted?
Some of the pollinators who overwinter in the leaves are:
- Fireflies
- Butterflies
- Moths
- Beetles
- Bees
There are Ways to Keep it Tidy
A pollinator-friendly alternative to raking and then shredding, bagging or burning leaves is to keep leaves whole as much as you can. They can be redistributed by pushing them around the base of your trees and into your garden beds.
This helps by:
- protecting the plants
- providing free mulch
- saving pollinators as all of our beneficial insects overwinter--except for migrating Monarchs--and often do so in the leaves
- supporting pollinator reproductive cycles as shredding, burning or bagging leaves for municipal compost kills the eggs and the pupa
Composting leaves somewhere at the back of your yard keeps the nutrients that developed on your property right there on your property! You can regenerate your soil without chemical fertilizers.
Leave the Seed Heads on Your Native Plants
After the growing season has ended, you can support birds and pollinators in mind by leaving the seed heads on your native plants for the following reasons:
- to help feed the nonmigratory birds--many die because of lack of food
- native seed heads in the garden are natural bird feeders that are much less likely to spread disease among the bird population than human made bird feeders
- butterflies like the swallowtail leave a chrysalis that will emerge in the spring
- the hollow stems of many native plants provide cozy places to overwinter for many pollinating insects, particularly solitary bees like leafcutter and mason bees, and a large variety of moths.
Many creatures rely on the conditions created by fallen leaves for their survival! Remember to leave as many leaves as you can!
