Along with the pink-washed night sky of a rare aurora borealis last week, we started seeing the first true signs of fall around Belmont: yellow ash trees, orange sugar maples, and lots of front porch mums. Will it soon be time to get out the rake? Maybe. But I’ve been trying to embrace a new habit: “leaving the leaves.” Maybe not all the leaves, but more and more each year, as well as plant stalks and seedheads.
If you have a lawn and leaves are left too thick on top, that will be bad for lawn health, of course. But you can find places to put leaves other than the yard waste bin. Raking them into your foundation borders and flower beds can help insulate the soil and roots over winter and provide shelter for ecologically essential insect pollinators, such as butterflies that “hibernate” in leaf litter, often in the form of eggs or chrysalises. Come spring, you can continue leaving the leaves (free mulch!) or bag them, but please wait until temperatures consistently reach over 50 degrees—or when you would consider it time to plant tomato seedlings outdoors—because only then will most of the butterflies and other pollinators have moved out of the leaves.
How else can we be lazy this fall? Instead of cutting back tender perennials to the ground, consider ignoring them. Leaving flower seedheads will help feed dark-eyed juncos, chickadees, and other birds through the winter. Once late spring arrives, and you get the urge to tidy, it’s easier on your knees and back and more beneficial to the ecosystem if you do less. By leaving intact six to 18 inches of last year’s dry stems, you will create a habitat for beneficial insects. For example, several species of docile and non-stinging native bees lay their eggs in those stems. New growth will cover those old stalks before you know it, and your garden and the surrounding ecosystem will be abuzz.
In leaving stalks, note it’s a two-year cycle. This summer’s green stems will dry over winter to become next summer’s bee cribs. The eggs or larval bees will hunker there until the following late spring. By then, many of the stalks will fall away and start to break down, returning nutrients to your soil without you having to lift a finger.
With a change in perspective and a shift away from our penchant for orderliness and immediate gratification, we might warm to the concept of the “shabby chic” fall garden. In the moment, we see dead leaves and spent flowers, but if we wait a few minutes, we might see a flock of goldfinches descend to feast on seeds. In taking an even longer view, casting our mind’s eye to future springs and summers, we might see more butterflies, birds, and life outside our door.
Jenny Angel has been gardening in Belmont since 2001. As a Garden Gems columnist, she covers Belmont’s horticultural history and current greenspaces and shares tips from local experts on diverse aspects of gardening and related pursuits.
