Put dead leaves to good use

By G. Owen Yost

If you're like some of my neighbors, now is the time of year when you get tired of moving fallen leaves from one place in your yard to another. Maybe you end up stuffing them into plastic bags, burning them (shame on you!) or you decide to call a pile of leaves a "compost pile."

Actually, the most environmentally sensible thing to do is leave them where they fall. Dead leaves from your native trees and shrubs can be an excellent mulch. And they're free! A thin carpet of leaves protects the soil from compaction and erosion. It protects fragile roots (which are usually near the surface) from the cold. To hasten their decomposition, you can shred them into little pieces by running a lawn mower over them.

Just don't ever rake your yard until it's leaf-free. By far the worst thing you can do is rake them all up, leaving bare ground exposed to the elements. This just encourages unwanted vegetation.

Most of the trees we have in Denton are oak trees. All spring and summer, oak leaves store up nutrients roughly equivalent to the nutrients in dried manure or some other compost ? which we'll gladly pay good money for! About now, these same leaves die and fall to the ground, and start decomposing ? releasing all that stored nutrient. (It's a natural, yearly cycle that has happened since before our species walked erect.)

Raking up the leaves interferes with the natural cycle and puts a lot of stress on plants. Left in place, however, fallen leaves slowly decompose into an excellent soil ingredient; leaves mixed with your soil will immediately start decomposing to loosen the soil and noticeably improve plant growth. Or, leaves can be mixed with other stuff to make an excellent compost.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no chemist. However, I'm told that fallen leaves contain carbon and nitrogen compounds, which all plants crave. What's more, some organic compounds (such as amino acids) resulting from leaf decomposition can be absorbed directly by plants, for more vigorous growth.

The only drawback to this practice that I know of is that sometimes too many leaves can form a mat and smother plants, cutting them off completely from sunlight, air or water. To combat this (and make your neighbors question your sanity) you can run your lawn mower over the fallen leaves several times ? shredding them into smaller pieces that tend to decompose faster and resist matting. Your lawn will green up earlier in the spring and will resist browning in the heat. If you don't have very many leaves, they will probably disappear from view (by decomposing and filtering down into the soil) after a few good rains. Doing this lets you skip one of your yearly fertilizer applications.

Don't get me wrong. Leaves can, and do, come to rest in the wrong places sometimes. So if they're on your driveway, sidewalk, porch or deck, rake or blow them away. But when they fall on soil (including your lawn), look at them as a free gift from nature ? not as a burden.

Bare ground, like a vacuum, is something that nature abhors. Look at that blanket of leaves on the ground. It's part of a yearly cycle that was created well before you and I were born. What you see on the ground is a very bountiful, nutritious gift to you and your landscape ? a gift that shouldn't be thrown away, pushed aside or sent to the landfill.

Owen Yost is an area landscape architect specializing in designing low-maintenance landscapes while incorporating native plants with hardscape. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Keep Denton Beautiful and the Native Plant Society of Texas. His Denton office is at 4516 Coyote Point; call 940-382-2099 or 940-383-9655 or e-mail him at Yost87@charter.net