Your lawn is not your living room: Leave some leaves for winter habitat protection!
The vast majority of invertebrates don’t migrate! Instead, they overwinter in the landscape and use leaf litter for winter cover. (Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash)
Every year around this time, the Urban Forest Alliance sends an important reminder to leave some leaves for the birds, bees, and butterflies! Why is this so important? Because most insects and other invertebrates don’t migrate! The vast majority spend their winters exactly where they spent their summers: right here.
Leaf “litter” that people are so anxious to rid their lawns of is not trash. It’s gold! Fallen leaves provide the shelter invertebrates need to survive winter and food for birds during the shortest days of the year. There is an amazing array of critters that rely on that golden, leafy blanket of warmth that is shed yearly from our majestic deciduous trees. Next year’s population of butterflies, bees, fireflies, and other beneficial insects is dependent on access to good wintering locations. It’s the cycle of life that has been ongoing for millennia. Human habitat interferes with that cycle, but we can help sustain balance by taking this small measure.
A widely held aesthetic now-a-days is to make sure one’s lawn is as pristine as one’s living room. This mindset almost demands that every leaf is removed from the yard, robbing wildlife of habitat and birds of a source of sustenance. We rob ourselves of a healthy diversity of pollinators next spring and summer.
Can we change that aesthetic and leave some leaves to sustain the critters that we love? It doesn’t necessarily mean that leaves have to remain where they fall on your lawn and in your yard. Not at all! When it comes to providing good habitat and maintaining a pristine lawn, one can have their caked eat it, too!
Leaves can be blown or raked from the lawn and into garden beds, they can spread around the base of a tree, and they can be put along a border at the back of your yard. A great way to camouflage leaves is to rake them into a bed of ground cover (such as pachysandra or English ivy). No one will see them, but you will know that you are protecting an array of life for the next year!
Rake leaves under a shrub. Wet them down if you’re worried about them blowing away. Or put up a small fence to contain some leaves. Proudly display a sign letting neighbors know that Leaving the Leaves plays an important role in the ecosystem!
Think twice this year as you rake, mow, or blow leaves away. There is life in that layer of leaves! Take some time to care for that life so that next year and in years to come, we build up a healthy haven in Franklin Park and Franklin Forest!
Many families in Franklin Park and Forest have been including native plants in their gardens to benefit pollinators and increase biodiversity. Now, those pollinators need a place to hide-out for the winter, and Mother Nature’s solution is leaf litter! Leaves are a natural habitat for butterflies, salamanders, chipmunks, box turtles, toads, shrews, earthworms and others.
So…leave some leaves! Then look for pollinators in the spring and enjoy more fireflies next summer!
photo: unsplash-image-wNypLh377_o.jpg