Any being can benefit only if the larger context of its existence benefits. This law can be seen in the honey bee and the flower. Both benefit when the bee comes to drink the nectar of the flower: the flower is fertilised, the bee obtains what it needs for making its honey.
Thomas Berry
The tree is nourished by the soil; the tree nourishes the soil with its leaves.
It is the ancient law of reciprocity. Whoever gives must also receive.
One of the most beautiful experiences of fall for me is watching all those leaves being scattered everywhere by the winds. I also know some of you feel the same way. Where they land and how they land provides colors and patterns that are my eye candy or even Leaf Creatures. Sadly, they’re now gone, or at least most of them. The landscapers came through yesterday and spent hours blowing leaves around, mowing them up or bagging them up. Leaves have a purpose in life and part of that purpose is to decay on the ground and provide nutrients for more life. The purpose for those leaves has been altered.
According to the EPA, yard trimmings, which include leaves, created about 35.4 million tons of waste in 2018. This analysis resulted in an estimate of 22.3 million tons of yard trimmings composted or wood waste mulched in 2018 with a 63 percent composting rate. In 2018, landfills received about 10.5 million tons of yard trimmings, which comprised 7.2 percent of all material specific waste landfilled. That composting rate is a good number, much more than I expected. But, no matter how you look at it that is a lot of yard trimmings.
Removing leaves in the fall is a task that many homeowners perform without question. Whether the leaves absolutely need to be cleaned up at this time is debatable. From an ecological standpoint, the answer to this question is no. However, if someone intends to have and maintain a healthy lawn beneath their trees, they really should try to remove them before the winter or mulch them. I will not enter into that the debate because my vote would be to remove the lawns. Let’s have some good old dirt to track in the house, some wildflowers, and beautiful gardens. Enough of my ranting!