Eco-friendly fall garden cleanup (video transcript):
As Autumn arrives and paints our gardens with its beautiful fall colors, we often rush in and try to clean it up and make it tidy and spotless. What if there’s a better way? A way that not only makes it easier for us, but makes it better for the vibrant ecosystems we’re actually trying to establish in our backyards.
Today we’re introducing a new method of fall garden cleanup, one that’s kinder to nature. We’re going to focus on five top points for the new fall cleanup. Fallen leaves are nature’s blanket.
They protect plant roots. They conserve moisture, break down to enrich the soil, plus they’re home to beneficial critters. Fallen leaves are the refuge for overwintering butterflies and malls, along with fireflies and other creatures.
They overwinter in those leaves and other dead spent plant material. Birds rely on leaves as well, and the spent plants, the fallen leaves, dead grasses. Other plant material are part of the habitat that supports birds.
In the spring and summer, nesting songbirds raise their young on the insects, moths, caterpillars that over winter in these leaves and dead plant material. And along with birds and the other wildlife I’ve mentioned, there’s toads, turtles, salamanders. They all live in there as well. Leaves, in short, are vital wildlife habitat that provides food, shelter, and nesting material. They’re natural mulch.
They help suppress weeds and fertilize the soil as it breaks down. This layer of expired plants and leaves, reduces soil erosion, slows water runoff, and provides an opportunity for water to absorb.
The less time you spend raking leaves, the more time you’re gonna have to enjoy this gorgeous fall weather. Many native flowers provide seeds that are crucial food for birds in the colder months. Let them feast. Plus, there are so many seeds in each seed head, you’ll get free plants come spring that you can allow to fill in your garden transplant or even just give to friends similar to deadheading.
Just leave what you can while tidiness tempts us to cut back. Plants standing stems. They offer shelter for insects and they add winter interest. Plus when it comes time to cut them back in the spring, those standing flower stalks actually act as homes to local pollinators.
If you must deadhead an area or clean up flowers, let’s say they’re leaning over a pathway, just move them off to your brush pile or create an area along your back fence or another fence line where you can place them for the birds to continue their feast. Not only is it a haven for birds and beneficial insects, it’s also a place that you can put leaves if needed, leave or create habitat critters prefer, and you will not be forcing them to find new homes like yours.
If we take away their cover and habitat by cleaning everything up, you’re forcing ’em to find someplace to go. So this autumn, let’s redefine clean and understand winter beauty that we may never have allowed ourselves to see.
Those red, brown, black and gold seed heads, leaves and stems. Crispy mounds of snow covered stalks, even the frosted leaves and glittering grasses.
Really? Who are we cleaning it up for anyway, it, it’s only us. We have to redefine what we consider fall cleanup. We need to let nature guide our hands and kind of unlearn what we’ve always thought we were supposed to be doing. And if we do that, we can create ecosystems that are alive, thriving, and truly in tune with the season.
I’m Patrick. Let’s go native.
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Need Help Going Native?
There are a lot of “rules” we’ve been told over the years and some hard-and-fast beliefs that we’ve developed as homeowners and gardeners. If you’d like help to understand a more eco-friendly, natural, and beneficial method, please reach out to learn more, and we can go native together!