To Shred, or Not to Shred… That Is the Question

What to do with fall leaves is an ongoing discussion, involving creativity and passion.  Make compost.  Make leaf mold, a form of compost.  Make Earth Beds.  Just leave them alone.  And on, and on.  One thing nobody, but nobody, wants is to see them carted off to landfills.

Disposed of in landfills, leaves change, almost diabolically, from wonderful life-giving entities to horrifying polluters.  Buried in a landfill, those wonderful leaves break down anaerobically, creating that greenhouse gas monster, Methane.  Methane is roughly 20 times as horrid as Carbon Dioxide for global warming, and sending our leaves away to suffer that fate turns our landfills into Methane-creating monsters of air pollution.  Yikes!

This brings the whole “get rid of the leaves” question into focus, for more than just the organic gardening community.  And, since Edmunds proved leaf blowers are bigger polluters than a Truck, a common method of leaf removal is added to the many reasons why we should keep our leaves and enjoy them.

Ghastly, isn’t it?  A leaf blower used for a mere 30 minutes produces as much polluting emissions as a high performance truck driving from Texas to Alaska.  Since few yards can be blown free of leaves in a mere 30 minutes, leaf blowers can be seen as an ultimate polluter for planet Earth.  If you feel you must remove the leaves on your lawn, please rake them nicely

Leaves, left alone in a garden bed, provide wonderful habitat for our favorite creatures.  Don’t pile leaves too deep - no more than 6 inches - to prevent smothering the very delights we’re trying to save.

Wow.  Who knew just raking leaves and using them in garden beds was so good for air quality?

Hurrah! Saving our leaves is a blow to air pollution everywhere.

So… what’s the big debate?  Mowers, which emit less than leaf blowers, can shred the leaves right on lawn areas, so they don’t have to go to landfills.  Just leave them alone in garden areas, great soil and helps keep back weeds.  A good thing, right? It is.  But…

Here’s the rub.  Shredding leaves kills those pollinators who overwinter in leaves - as with the Luna Moth, who literally wrap themselves in leaves and complete metamorphosis over the winter months.

Leaves, left where they fall, create marvelous habitat for butterflies, moths, even birds…as well as our favorite mosquito eating toads, frogs, even turtles!

Many insects, including some pollinators, over-winter as eggs laid on leaves, and they won’t be upset by shredding.  In fact, if you shred your leaves on your lawn, you may notice more birds walking about on your lawn areas in early spring.  They’re seeking those tiny caterpillars and those fat, juicy worms that have feasted on the leaves through the winter.

But… there are quite a few pollinators, even beyond the Luna Moths, that overwinter as caterpillars either wrapped in leaves or within leaf litter like the iconic Woolly-Bear caterpillars who will, if left alone in “leaf litter,” become Isabella Tiger Moths.   What would childhood be without Woolly-Bears?  Or box turtles. Mosquito eating toads and frogs.  Bumblebees. Butterflies… the list is long.

So!  Let’s just leave the leaves where they fall!  Talk about saving energy!

Cheers!  Our sincere hope is that you do just this.  But, if you live in an area with rules about leaf removal, it could get… ummmm… interesting.

Sigh.  It’s easy to get annoyed with governmental and quasi-governmental entities who have decided that they don’t want to see leaves, period.

It’s easy to growl, but harder when you consider that leaves are slippery, due to the waxy coating they wear called the “cuticle.”  Leaves, left in roadways, are a true hazard to drivers.  No kidding! Leaves are slippery, as slippery, in fact, as ice, making driving quite treacherous in rains and downright scary if those leaves freeze on the road.  That’s the reason so many municipalities require leaf clean up in the fall.

Innocent looking leaves are coated with a waxy cuticle, which resists water and creates the same slippery conditions as ice - which is slippery because of water on its surface.

Happily… shredding of leaves prevents them from blowing in the wind.  They’ll stay where they’re shredded, out of the roadways, feeding worms and acting as agents for bird-feeding caterpillars in the spring, keeping Methane out of landfills the whole time.  Let leaves that fall in your garden stay there, too.  You’ll have wonderful soil and make many small critters happy.

Hedges do a great job of preventing leaves from blowing onto neighbors’ lawns.

Shredding them… it does kill many wonderful creatures and destroys habitat for others.

What’s best in your yard?

Up to you.

For your research:

• https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves

• https://www.humanegardener.com/animals-made-possible-fallen-leaves/