All I see are leaves: they hug the hellebores, they swirl at the back door, they’re mounded around the new patch of Agastache. This winter’s “snow drought” in the Northeast has brought revelations. The leaf litter reminds me of my former bad habit and my new status. I proudly proclaim that I am a reformed raker.
There is so much life in January under the leaf cover: insects, amphibians, mammals – you name it.
I’ll admit that raking and leaf blowing was a hard habit to break. Here in New England, autumn is accompanied by the incessant noise of leaf blowers. Doesn’t anyone own a rake anymore? Trucks and their crews daily cart off loads of leaves to landfills. I have no excuse except that the peer pressure is intense. A nearby neighbor blew leaves for eight hours last November. There wasn’t a leaf in sight in her yard and nowhere for a single critter to take cover.
The maples create such a heavy carpet of leaves on top of the perennial beds that I did a light rake. But then I left the leaves and invited in earthworms, spiders, salamanders, frogs – any critter that wanted to slumber undercover. I feel smug feeding the soil and sparing our clogged landfills.
I can see the larger mammals in the back yard – the fox crossing through the leaves – but there’s a lot of life I don’t see. Chipmunks hibernate in the stone walls in dens lined with leaves, milkweed, and dried seed heads. Amphibians burrow under leaf litter to maintain their moisture levels. Frogs dig under the leaves in the muddy areas, while turtles need the ground cover, too. I take comfort knowing they all slumber beneath me.
And below the soil’s surface, small insects live under a blanket of leaves in cocoons. Come spring they’ll emerge as adults.
What’s more, I’m always working to find more space in our backyard to compost leaves, but space is tight in this New England mill town. And I have found that these Connecticut Nutmeggers frown on composting your leaves on their property.
It took time, but I finally get it. This is what mother nature intended. And I intend to work with her and not against her.
Anyone want to buy a used Ryobi leaf blower?