{"id":942,"date":"2013-10-28T19:35:49","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T19:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=942"},"modified":"2013-10-28T19:37:37","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T19:37:37","slug":"brown-gold-the-gift-of-fall-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=942","title":{"rendered":"Brown Gold: The Gift of Fall Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Barb Elliot<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The brilliant yellow, orange, and red leaves are turning brown.\u00a0 The beauty of autumn is fleeting and soon all the leaves will be on the ground.\u00a0 This \u201cleaf litter\u201d is not trash.\u00a0 The leaves nourish my garden.\u00a0 They\u2019re home to tiny creatures that are essential to my garden\u2019s ecosystem.\u00a0 These leaves are the gift of fall.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year, instead of buying expensive mulch, I mulched with fallen leaves.\u00a0 My trees and shrubs produce leaves abundantly and without charge.\u00a0 Wherever possible, I left them to decompose where they fell.\u00a0 I raked the rest from my lawn into my planting beds.\u00a0\u00a0 Also, I collected leaves from my neighbors and added them to my garden.\u00a0 The leaves choked out the weeds, retained moisture, reduced erosion, and insulated the roots of my plants against winter cold.\u00a0 A natural fertilizer, they added nutrients to my soil.\u00a0 My plants grew remarkably well this year.<\/p>\n

Leaf litter (or duff) offers exceptional benefits.\u00a0 Myriad creatures live in the duff and play key roles in the healthy, diverse ecosystem of my yard.\u00a0 Countless microorganisms and tiny invertebrates break down the leaves into basic elements that enrich the soil.\u00a0 Bacteria and fungi accomplish the bulk of decomposition.\u00a0 Invertebrates such as snails, slugs, and earthworms assist in the process and contribute to the web of life in the leaves and soil.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>

American Toads eat invertebrates in leaf mulch. Jarek Tuszynski photo, Wikimedia Creative Commons. \u00a0Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many, many arthropods — creatures with exoskeletons and jointed legs — such as sowbugs, spiders, daddy longlegs, millipedes, centipedes, protruans, and double-tails play an important role, too.\u00a0 Spring-tails and mites, the most numerous, are so small they are rarely observed by gardeners.\u00a0 Many beneficial insects such as crickets, beetles, flies, bees, wasps, and ants also live in the duff. \u00a0All of these creatures are food for other invertebrates or larger animals such as salamanders, toads, and mice.\u00a0 These in turn are eaten by birds, snakes, or larger mammals.\u00a0 The large and small animals associated with the leaf layer form a natural predator-prey balance in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

We butterfly-lovers (and fellow moth-lovers, too) know the leaf layer shelters these winged beauties in their various life stages.\u00a0 Numerous butterfly and moth species<\/p>\n

\"Red-banded<\/a>

Red-banded Hairstreak on Barb’s Mountain Mint. Photo \u00a9 Barb Elliot.<\/p><\/div>\n

overwinter in the leaf litter as eggs, larvae (caterpillars), pupae (chrysalides or cocoons) or adults. \u00a0For instance, the lovely Red-banded Hairstreak, which has visited my yard, lays its eggs on the underside of fallen sumac or oak leaves. When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat the leaves and then overwinter in the leaf layer as late-stage caterpillars or chrysalides.\u00a0 Tawny Emperor butterfly caterpillars wrap themselves in a curled leaf and overwinter as caterpillars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Woolly<\/a>

Woolly Bear caterpillar in Barb’s leaf mulch. October, 2013. Photo \u00a9 Barb Elliot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Isabella<\/a>

Isabella Tiger Moth – adult form of a Woolly Bear. Steve Jurvetson photo, Wikipedia Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fuzzy Woolly Bear caterpillars are now searching for good spots under the leaf layer where they will hibernate for the winter.\u00a0 In spring, each will spin a cocoon and emerge as an Isabella Tiger Moth.<\/p>\n

The Luna Moth, one of our largest and most beautiful moths, overwinters as a cocoon in the dead leaves.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when we treat our leaves as trash, we are also throwing out the butterflies and moths that will grace our yards next spring and summer.<\/p>\n

\"Cocoons<\/a>

Luna Moth cocoons are found in leaf mulch. Photo \u00a9 Adrian Binns.<\/p><\/div>\n

Leaf litter benefits birds, too.\u00a0 In my yard I see ground-feeding Eastern Towhees, Gray Catbirds, Northern Flickers, and sparrows picking through the leaves.\u00a0 They find insects and other invertebrates to feed themselves and their protein-hungry nestlings. One spring, a migrating Brown Thrasher, a species I don\u2019t see very often, foraged in the<\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a>

Brown Thrasher. Photo \u00a9 Howard Eskin. \u00a0Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

leaves of my flower bed. \u00a0\u00a0Birds that nest in my yard search the leaf layer for nesting materials such as leaf stems, twigs, and moss.<\/p>\n

In our society, we are expected to be yard \u201cneatniks\u201d.\u00a0 We conscientiously rake or blow leaves into piles and then stuff them into bags.\u00a0 Picked up at the curb, the leaves end up in a landfill or a huge \u201cleaf compost\u201d pile that smothers beneficial creatures.\u00a0 Personally, I choose to keep all my own leaves and add those discarded by neighbors so they can decompose naturally in my yard.\u00a0 Maybe you, too, will rescue leaves from neighbors.\u00a0 If you want to start small, rake some leaves into a back corner of your yard.\u00a0 Although shredding leaves speeds up decomposition, I refrain for fear I\u2019ll destroy the insects and other animals living there.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m making a vow.\u00a0 I will never again throw out next year\u2019s butterflies and moths or the other animals that live in my leaf litter.\u00a0 Dead leaves are a gift to biodiversity and the web of life.\u00a0 Leaf mulch is brown gold.\u00a0 I\u2019m joining the new movement* to make fallen leaves socially acceptable as garden mulch.\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m in!\u00a0 Are you?<\/p>\n

————————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Resources<\/em><\/p>\n

*Borge, Mary Anne. \u201c<\/b>Red-banded Hairstreaks, Sumacs and Leaf Mulch\u201d. Butterfly Gardener, <\/i>Volume 18, Issue 3, Fall 2013, 9-11.<\/p>\n

Bodin, Madeline.\u00a0 \u201cEvery Litter Bit Helps\u201d.\u00a0 National Wildlife<\/i>, October 1, 2005. https:\/\/www.nwf.org\/News-and-Magazines\/National-Wildlife\/Gardening\/Archives\/2005\/Tree-Leaves-for-Backyard-Wildlife.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson, Elizabeth and Catley, Kefyn.\u00a0 Life in the Leaf Litter<\/i>.\u00a0 American Museum of Natural History, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, 2002.<\/p>\n

Sutton, Pat.\u00a0 A Love of Untidy Gardens and Why!\u00a0 Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens<\/i>. 2011.\u00a0 http:\/\/nativeplantwildlifegarden.com\/untidy-wildlife-gardens\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Barb Elliot The brilliant yellow, orange, and red leaves are turning brown.\u00a0 The beauty of autumn is fleeting and soon all the leaves will be on the ground.\u00a0 This \u201cleaf litter\u201d is not trash.\u00a0 The leaves nourish my garden.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,44,39,40,42,43,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}