It’s November in Southeastern Pennsylvania and that means a few things – cool nights, shorter days, and an abundance of leaves.
But what’s a gardener and a homeowner to do with all those leaves? They were beautiful on the trees, in their shades of ochre, russet and gold. But now they’re all over the yard, garden and sidewalk, leaving us with a moral dilemma.
On one side of the leaf conversation, we’ve got townships and municipalities that tell us we need to rake everything to the curb in bags to be picked up in leaf management trucks. And on the other we’re told to let the leaves lie where they fall until spring to preserve habitat for insects.
That puts us in a difficult spot. All of us want to do the right thing for the local insect populations (as well as birds, squirrels and other wildlife), while at the same time preserving our lawns and our relationships with our neighbors.
We’re no stranger to this dilemma here at Tyler Arboretum. We manage it yearly in our lawns and gardens inside the fence. Every year our leaf management strategy varies based on how many leaves fall, when and where. But here are the three main things we do at Tyler.
1. Do Nothing.
Lucky for us, the majority of our property exists as natural areas – 550 acres in fact! In these areas we do nothing at all and just let nature take its course. Anything that falls in the forest outside the fence is left alone. This creates fantastic habitat for all the critters that overwinter at Tyler. This is perfect for species like hummingbird moths and luna moths, who make their winter homes in fallen leaves and don’t emerge until the spring.
In our 550 acres of natural areas, we let the leaves lie — allowing nature to take its course.
2. Move the Leaves to a Spot that Works for Everyone.
Inside the fence, we have about 100 acres of more managed property. Here you’ll find beautiful landscapes like the Pinetum, as well as formal gardens and lawns. Leaves that fall on lawns can smother the grass. So, visitors who come to Tyler in the fall might see the Horticulture staff with blowers moving the leaves off the lawns. We like to blow them into more natural areas like stream corridors and woodland edges where they can spend the winter breaking down and sheltering pollinators in place. We also lightly chop up some of these leaves with our handy mowers to leave in place to fertilize the lawn. This is an ecological and sustainable solution to improve nutrients of the lawn areas without using fertilizer products.
In the 100 acres inside our deer fence, we move leaves off our lawns and walkways into more natural areas like woodland edges.
3. Collect Leaves.
Every year we do collect a very small portion of the leaves that fall on the property. In some cases, we do this because we’re worried about bacterial diseases that can overwinter in the leaves and reappear in our plants in the spring. In other cases, like the Painter Ginkgo, the leaves don’t break down well and could lead to slippery conditions on walking surfaces. Then sometimes, depending on the weather conditions, there are just too many leaves to neatly brush into natural areas, and the leaves must be picked up.
All the leaves we collect go across the street. That’s where we keep our compost pile, along with the wood chips we use as mulch. We also have a separate leaf pile! There the leaves can spend the winter breaking down and come spring we mix it in with our older leaf compost piles to get the leaf mulch we use to enrich the soil at the Lucille’s Edible Garden, the Fragrant Garden and Pollinator Preserve. That saves us from having to buy mulch or fertilizer from off the property and helps keep the energy cycling in the Tyler ecosystem.
Our Painter Ginkgo leaves are among those that we collect because they don't break down well and can lead to slippery conditions on walking surfaces like the Lachford Patio.
But what can you do if you don’t have a 650-acre Arboretum, with 550 acres of Natural Areas and your own compost corner?
Here are five simple things you can do right in your own backyard to help pollinators this leaf season.
1. Create a Soft Landing.
You might not be able to let the leaves blanket your lawn through the winter, but maybe you have some places under trees where you can rake the leaves into a natural mulch ring. This soft landing is a good place for insects to overwinter, and if you make nice even piles of leaves, they will break down into a mulch that feeds your trees.
2. Use the Leaves to Mulch Your Flower Beds.
If you have flowerbeds on your property, you can rake your leaves into the beds! Make sure to keep the leaf layer even and away from the crowns of the plants, but those leaves can stay in place all through the winter. Then in the spring when the temperatures remain above 50 degrees and the plants start pushing new growth, you can remove excess leaves and keep the remainder to break down into mulch. Free fertilizer for your plants! Bonus, the old excess leaves no longer harbor any insect neighbors and can safely be added to your compost pile to jumpstart the cycle for the new year.
3. Create an Insect House.
You can see an example of an Insect House in action at the Pollinator Preserve! This is a similar concept to that of a dead hedge, or an intentional pile of sticks and leaves left in a garden to act as an insect hotel. Fair warning, other critters might use this space to keep snug and warm through the winter as well. But if you have a nice wild corner of your yard, this is great real estate.
This Insect House at our Pollinator Preserve is made from a combination of strong sticks, hollow sticks, lawn clippings and fallen leaves.
4. Pile Your Leaves in a Nice Shallow Pile in an Unused Corner of the Yard.
This is a little like what we do at our leaf compost pile. Nancy Heinbaugh, who oversees the Pollinator Preserve, says that it’s better to keep these leaves to themselves for a season. If insects are buried too deep, they might struggle to emerge in the spring. But left on their own, insects can emerge safely and then the leaves can be used as free mulch!
5. When Planting, Chose the Right Plant for the Right Place.
Often times, you can reduce your work as a gardener by choosing the right plant for your particular site. Oaks are a wonderful tree that support many native pollinators and beneficial insects; however, their leaves take a full year to break down so consider planting them in wilder parts of your yard where you won’t need to move them to preserve your lawn. Other great species like serviceberry have small, easy-to-manage leaves that settle easily into the grass and would be perfect for a lawn planting. Check out this database to search your area and see what native plant species are supporting your local pollinators!
As always, stop by Tyler Arboretum to enjoy all the beauty of the fall season. The vibrant hues of the trees and the rich blue of the sky are a final burst of color to take us through the long, quiet days of winter.
