Leaving the leaves…and stems
We are at peak leaf season and many of us know, or have at least heard, about leaving the leaves on our lawns and gardens to benefit the landscape. Leaves make a great natural mulch to suppress winter weeds and insulate the ground around plants to help them survive the winter, all while adding rich organic matter to improve the soil over time. Leaves can also be moved to areas of your yard where you’d like to convert more lawn area to native landscaping. Just pile them up and let nature do the work for you! Leaves also provide an important thermal refuge for many wildlife species over the winter.
Leaf litter is critical for many insect, reptile, amphibian, and small mammal species to complete their lifecycles. Many species of moth and butterfly, such as the Luna moth (Actias luna), overwinter in the leaf litter taking advantage of both the camouflage to avoid predation and the insulation to protect them from extreme temperature fluctuations. Hatchling box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) burry themselves under the leaf litter not only to hibernate, but spend much of their first few years of life using thick leaf litter as cover and places to find food. Ground-roosting bats such as the eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) use leaf litter to hibernate. Instead of caves and tree bark used by many species of bats to hibernate, the eastern red bat uses leaf litter to weather the long cold nights of winter.
Speaking of overwintering spots for wildlife, remember that as you prep your gardens for a long winter’s rest, be sure to leave as much cover for wildlife as possible. Seed heads and stems provide food and cover for overwintering birds. If you must cut them back, leave at least 8-12 inches of the stem available. Our native solitary bees use the hollow stems to overwinter and then lay eggs in the spring. Cutting them down too short could result in losing next year’s bees, butterflies, and other insects!
So leave the leaves and keep the stems as nature intended. Be-leaf me, your plants and wildlife will be tree-mendously grateful!
- Jeffrey Popp, Director of Restoration