Category: dealing with fall leaves on lawn

Leave The Leaves: A Simple Way to Help Wildlife and Your Garden

On By durhammastergardenersIn bees, beneficial insects, composting, dealing with fall leaves on lawn, Durham NC, fall gardening, garden design, gardening, Gardening information, gardening NC, insects, lawns, leaves, mulch, pollinator gardening, pollinators, soil, soil health, soil microbes, sustainability, sustainable gardening, sustanability, urban wildlife

By Marcia Kirinus, NC State Extension Master GardenerSM volunteer of Durham County

Image credit: Jean Epiphan


Did you know that the National Wildlife Federation has designated October as Leave the Leaves Month? This initiative encourages people to rethink traditional fall yard clean-up by leaving fallen leaves in place—or at least on your property—instead of bagging them up and sending them to the landfill

Traditional fall clean-up often involves raking or blowing leaves, bagging them, and setting them out on the curb. Then we head over to the big box store to buy mulch and fertilizer to replace what nature is already providing. This process is time consuming, resource draining, and unnecessary. Leaves are not trash. We are missing an opportunity.

Instead, let nature do the hard work — your garden will thank you. The thing that is most natural to do — the thing that happens in nature — is to let your leaves lie where they fall. If you have extra leaves, bag them and offer them to neighbors or local gardeners who can make good use of them.

Beyond convenience, there are significant benefits to leaving the leaves. First and foremost, they nourish the soil. As leaves decompose, they enrich the soil with nutrients, promoting healthier, richer soils. Consider them free mulch and fertilizer. Second, leaves insulate the soil, protecting it from temperature fluctuations. They also help retain moisture. Finally, leaves make incredibly important habitats for wildlife. Have you noticed a decline in lightning bugs? Most of their life cycle is spent under leaf debris. By keeping your leaves in place you can boost wildlife habitats, enrich your soil, and even help with global environmental challenges.

Left: Adult Firefly. Right: Larvae of Firefly . Most fireflies are habitat specialists. They rely on undisturbed leaf litter for one year or more to complete their lifecycles. These insects spend most of their lives as larvae preying on earthworms and other animals in the soil or leaf litter. If that habitat is disrupted during their youth, populations can be extinguished. (Image credit M. Bertone, NCSU Entomology.)

Last year’s oak leaves slowly decomposing with the help of small pinwheel mushrooms (Marasmius rotula).  Image credit: Jean Epiphan


Soil Enrichment: The Cornerstone of Healthy Gardens

Soils rich in organic matter absorb and retain water better, turning a soggy lawn into a sponge-like garden bed. In as little as two years, you can turn those wet areas into walkable spaces. It’s not a miracle as building soils naturally is a slow process, but it’s a start and it’s free.

Healthy soil, enriched by decomposed leaves, supports deep-rooted plants, reduces watering needs, and improves plant resilience.


Wildlife Benefits: From Moths to Bumblebees

Leaves provide shelter for many species, including fireflies, butterflies, Moths and endangered bumblebees. Caterpillars overwinter in leaf litter, which also sustains backyard birds in spring. By leaving leaves on the ground, you’re creating essential habitats for these creatures, helping maintain biodiversity and supporting the larger food chain, from insects to birds. Caterpillars, which overwinter in the leaf litter, are a primary food source for 96% of backyard birds during the spring.

From Left to Right: Luna moth pupae, ( Actias luna ), are often difficult to see as they are a chestnut brown and overwinter in leaf litter. In the spring it will emerge as a soft green, 3 to 4.5 inch moth. All life stages provide food for predators. (Image credit: Donald W. Hall, UF) Leaf litter is the ideal Earthworm habitat. Earthworms provide beneficial castings which are building blocks to healthy soil. (Image credit: M. Bertone, NCSU) Woolly bear (Pyrrharctia isabella) construct shelters like this one made from pine needles to protect themselves from the winter elements. They also commonly use leaf litter and other yard debris. (Image credit: batwrangler, flickr. with permission)


Small Acts, Big Impact: Helping with Global Change

By making small changes in how we manage our yards, we can create big environmental benefits—both locally and globally. Leaving the leaves isn’t just about benefiting your yard—it’s about making a difference on a global scale. Encouraging wildlife and helping to maintain a balance in the food chain is one way you are helping. By skipping the blower and rake, you also reduce fossil fuel consumption, lowering your carbon footprint. Additionally, leaves that are sent to landfills contribute to methane emissions as they decompose without oxygen. Composting them in your yard helps reduce these emissions.

If you still want to move your leaves around the yard, consider using a rake instead of a blower. Rakes are quieter, healthier for you, and don’t rely on fossil fuels. They also give you more control, allowing you to gently move the leaves without disturbing the soil or nearby wildlife. My neighbor for 17 years told me that he can rake faster than he can blow his leaves. I was dubious. At the time, my clean-up tool was a blower. However, I hated the noise and smell so I took his words as a challenge. I pulled out the rake and never looked back. I can rake faster, and with a lighter touch. I can listen to the birds and I feel stronger, fitter for doing so.

I also reduced my turfgrass lawn significantly so I can leave the leaves in place. I converted it into valuable wildlife habitat by planting native ferns and flowers. Lawns require water, fertilizer, and herbicides, not to mention mowing, which creates noise and uses fossil fuels. And lawns are wildlife dead zones. However, I still need a place to play fetch with Moira, so a small patch of “meadow” remains. I say meadow because it is green – mostly clover.

Making the most of your leaves

Here are a few simple strategies to keep them working for you. You don’t have to leave all the leaves exactly where they fall.

  • On Lawns: A thick layer of leaves can suffocate your lawn. Instead, run a mower over the leaves to chop them into smaller pieces. A thin layer (1–2 inches) of shredded leaves can actually nourish the grass over the winter, breaking down over time to feed the soil.
  • Flower or Vegetable Beds: Spread whole leaves in flower beds or vegetable gardens. They act as mulch, suppressing weeds and adding organic matter as they decompose, improving soil structure and fertility. For most garden beds, a leaf layer of 3–5 inches deep is ideal. Avoid piling leaves directly on top of plants; instead, place them around the plants, covering any exposed soil. This will suppress weeds, preserve soil moisture, and return nutrients to the roots as the leaves decompose.
  • Composting: Leaves are perfect for composting—rich in carbon and ideal for building fertile soil. Consider adding them to your compost pile or creating a leaf mold. If the wind blows leaves into unwanted areas, let nature guide them into natural piles, and then redistribute the leaves to your garden beds or around trees.

From left to right: Mower cutting leaves into small pieces instead of removing them (Image credit: Pixaby);. Moving whole leaves to help create paths by suppressing weeds (Image credit: Justin Butts). Composting excessive leaves (Image credit: Christy Bredenkamp, NC Extension Director, Moore County).

Conclusion: A Small Change with a Big Impact


With just a few thoughtful changes, as gardeners and homeowners, we have the power to make a positive impact on the environment by simply rethinking how we take care of our little piece of earth outside of our back door. This October, join the movement and Leave the Leaves—because every leaf left behind makes a difference.

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To Do in the Garden: October 2024

On By durhammastergardenersIn Accidental Cottage Garden, azalea lace bugs, bees, beneficial insects, bulbs, cankerworm mitigation, cankerworms, composting, container gardening, cover crops, dealing with fall leaves on lawn, fall cover crops, fall gardening, fall vegetable gardening, forcing bulbs indoors, native bee habitat, nesting bees, nesting insects, soil samples Durham NC extension, sustainable fall pruning for insects and wildlife, sustainable fall pruning for wildlife, tree banding in the fall, tulips, Uncategorized

By Gary Crispell, NC State Extension Master GardenerSM volunteer of Durham County

While the Accidental Cottage Garden (ACG) took a hit from all the rain, the blooms of the zinnia (Z. elegans) and gaillarda (G. pulchella) still delight with punches of color. Scene from the late-season and very soggy ACG. (Image credit: Melinda Heigel and Gary Crispell)

And suddenly it’s October. When and how did that happen? Although, I’m pretty sure I got here by boat. Hopefully, the three-month monsoon season is over, but we could still get another gift from the tropics. (Someone needs to do something about the butterflies in West Africa.) 

The rain gauge indicated 12 inches for September. The last time I remember anywhere near that amount was in 1996, when our dear, yet very angry friend, Fran, visited for a harrowing overnight stay. 

The Accidental Cottage Garden is bowed but not broken. Everything is beaten down and bent over. Kinda looks like myriad ground covers gone berserk. However, in the tangles, one can find an assortment of delightful blooms. Zinnias (Z. elegans), African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), mock vervain (Glandularia bipinnatifida), plucky gaillardia (G. pulchella), evening primrose (Oenothera lamarckiana), Autumn Joy sedum (S. ‘Herbstfreude’), hardy ageratum (Conoclinium coelestinum), and two volunteer cosmos (C. bipinnata) are doing their best to overcome the odds and keep the neighbors smiling. 

So, what’s going on in your garden? Perhaps you’ll find something useful or amusing (or amusingly useful) in here this month (or not). Either way, let’s garden. 

LAWN CARE

Attempt to prevent leaf accumulation on lawns, especially newly seeded or overseeded ones. And be sure those receive adequate moisture. (Yeah, I know. Really?!?) About those leaves, please compost them or put them into a natural area. They do not belong in the landfill. Continue mowing cool-season grasses (tall fescue, bluegrass, perennial rye) at 3 ½” to 4.”

FERTILIZING

Not much to see (or do) here, folks. Drop some fertilizer on the spring-flowering bulb beds. 10-10-10 or equivalent will do just fine. Work it into the soil where possible. Store any leftover fertilizer in sealed containers in a dry location until next season. 

PLANTING

(Left to right) Pansies brighten up the shorter autumn days. Tulip and pansy pot planted in the fall. The pansies were joyous for 3 long seasons: fall, winter, as well as in the spring when the tulips also came into their own. (Image credit: Melinda Heigel and Marcia Kirinus)

“FALL IS FOR PLANTING,” repeated…again. Things planted now will have most of the winter to put down roots and get established so they’ll be ready for another Sonoran June. Consider planting a cover crop on any part of the veggie garden not growing a fall crop. Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) or winter rye (Secale cereale) will keep the soil intact and add nutrients to it.

Plant spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, narcissus, etc.) this month. Plant salad greens and short-season root crops (carrots, radishes) in a cold frame. Do something nice for yourself and plant pansies. A pot full of their smiling faces can do a lot to lift the gloom of a day when it’s 34 degrees and raining. Caveat: deer LOVE them.

PRUNING

Wait until it gets cold (post-killing frost) and intends to remain that way for a bit. The goal is to avoid any new growth attempting an emergence until spring. Cutting back everything in the perennial garden is something your grandmother did but is no longer considered “best practices.” Apparently, there are solitary native bees that lay eggs on or overwinter in the stems of said perennials. Your grandmother didn’t tell you because she didn’t know. Somebody with a great deal of intellect, curiosity, and, quite frankly, an amazing amount of time on their hands figured this out in the not-too-distant past (post-grandma period). So, DON’T cut back your perennials unless the HOA is fixin’ to put a lien on your house. Chances are an HOA wouldn’t let you plant perennials (aka, weeds) in your yard to begin with. They—the stems, not the HOA—are better left until spring. Root prune any trees or shrubs you plan on moving in the spring. Have you noticed that most of fall is spent preparing for spring? That’s what the plant kingdom does. Those of us in the animal world get ready for winter. Plants have their eyes on the future. 

Close up of the rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), an example of a hollow-stemmed plant that provides valuable over-winter habitat for nesting insects. This photo shows the stems after cutting in the spring once insects may have emerged. Other plants with hollow stems include anise hyssop, bluestar, milkweed, tall tickseed, and pink muhly grass, among others. Pithy-stemmed plants like purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) provide habitat for some bees who use pith to build their nests. (Image credit: Debbie Roos)

SPRAYING

Most of the pesky little &*@$# have gone to sleep for the winter. There are two notable exceptions: lace bugs on azaleas (especially those in full or mostly sun) and scale on euonymus and camellias. Both can be treated with horticultural oil. It smothers the adults and their eggs. 

Damage caused by azalea lace bug, Stephanitis pyrioides (Scott). (Image credit: James. L. Castner, University of Florida)

PROPAGATION

Some of you are starting plants from cuttings. Maybe even in a cold frame that doesn’t have veggies planted in it. Be sure to monitor it at least bi-weekly for health and vigor. Water as necessary. 

Other amazingly fun stuff to fill whatever “perfect October days” we may be granted by whomever is in charge of such things:

Take soil samples while they are FREE through November. Sample collection boxes and instructions are available from the Durham County Extension office at 721 Foster St. or from the NCDOACS.

Repeating: compost any leaves you gather up. Sending them to the landfill is a definite no-no.

Cleanse the bird feeder(s), fill ‘em up, and put ‘em out. Sit back and watch. It’s therapeutic.

Prepare all your lawn and garden equipment for its long winter’s nap.

if you band your trees to mitigate the number of insect larvae that might feed on your trees in the summer (and whose digestive tracts are highly inefficient, causing copious quantities of worm feces to accumulate on whatever is under said trees—a friend told me about this), now is the time to do this (if you remember what “this” is after the mid-paragraph digression).

Sticky bands capture female moths who will begin crawling up tree trunks in the fall to mate and lay eggs that will hatch into the small caterpillars we call Cankerworms. In the spring, these hungry caterpillars emerge and eat the leaves of hardwood trees in urban areas and can be a threat to tree health and mortality. Some experts recommend waiting until all the leaves have fallen before banding. (Image credit: William A. Carothers, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org.)

For a glimpse of spring in the bleak midwinter, try forcing spring-flowering bulbs. Daffodils and narcissus are good candidates for this exercise. Plant the bulbs in pots early in October and put them in the refrigerator. This assumes that you have a huge refrigerator and no teenagers in the house. In 12 weeks (Happy New Year!), remove them and set them in a sunny window where you can watch them grow and bloom. Fun! Kids get a kick out of it.

Paperwhite narcissus bulbs forced for indoor bloom. (Image credit: University of Florida/IFAS Extension and Cornell Cooperative Extension)

Bask in the beauty of the season when the leaves show off their true colors without the chlorophyll mask they have worn all summer. We may have to do that close to home this year. The mountains are closed until further notice. Sad. It’s the beginning of fire pit season. ‘Nuff said. Enjoy it, y’all! 

Resources and Additional Information

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