Leave Them Be – Lisa Connors

I decided to interrupt my regular blog post book review to bring you this special PSA today. More aptly it should be called an IPA and no, it’s not a beer. It’s an Insect Protection Announcement.  

You may not be a huge fan of insects, but I bet you would be interested in saving time, energy, and money. I’m talking about NOT raking your leaves this season. I already understood the ecological importance of Leave the Leaves for supporting healthy soils and food chains, and have been only raking some leaves into my vegetable beds for several years now.

Need some encouragement to have a wilder look to your yard? The following facts are from Kathy Reshetiloff’s article in the September issue of the Chesapeake Bay Journal: Give Yourself (and Wildlife) a Break – Put down the Rake.

Native invertebrates, insects, amphibians, and reptiles depend on leaves for habitat to survive the winter.

The invertebrates that consume leaves are in turn food for wintering birds like robins, chickadees, wrens, titmice, nuthatches, and jays.

Fireflies lay their eggs in fallen leaves.

Many native bee species need tiny spaces in dead wood, hollow stems, or brush piles. A layer of leaves provides them added protection.

Leaves and leaf piles that remain all winter are a source of food for migratory birds in the spring.

A variety of butterflies and moths overwinter in leaves as eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, or cocoons, or as adults.

It is not often in life one can feel good about helping so much wildlife without doing anything! However, one suggestion I often see – to placate those who have trouble with this idea – is to mow leaves with a mulching mower. This suggestion always left me with a nagging question. Wouldn’t that kill some of the very insects you are trying to protect?  

But I found a wonderful guide from Homegrown National Park that answered this question and others. It structures ways of dealing with leaves into three categories: green, orange, red. Green means it supports wildlife and retains nutrients, orange harms wildlife but retains nutrients and red harms wildlife and causes nutrient loss. My habit of adding leaves to my vegetable beds is in the orange category. I am still going to add some, but I have a lot of yard space that is just left wild so I feel ok about this. See this helpful guide here.

I really hope you will consider not raking or raking less and spreading the word. I am continuing to enjoy my Insect Project and not raking means more time to find and paint some critters while doing something that helps them – not raking!