Give yourself a break: do less for more in your garden in Autumn.


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It’s quite simple really: never throw leaves in the bin again! You can just leave them where they fall in your garden (they will break down over winter, not take over the world). If that is a tad too much for you, clear them from lawns, drives and paths and then pile them on your borders as a mulch instead.

Lovely leaves!
Leaves cleared from paths were placed on the borders.

Worms and other beneficial organisms do you the favour of coming up to pull leaves down to munch and break them down into the soil. This all adds humus (not hummus, an important distinction) and nutrients to your soil.

Uncleared fallen leaves, along with seedheads, woody stems and brown vegetation, provide bedding, shelter, nursery, and buffet for the broad interdependent ecosystem in your garden – including fungi, insects, invertebrates, amphibians, small mammals, birds… all the way through to our ‘bigger’ wild predators such as hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, owls and other birds of prey.

By being judicious with the tidying away (and putting off cutting things back until early spring) you’re actually helping your garden look after itself over the coming winter months; you’re bolstering it, too, with added (free!) organic matter, and enriching the intricate system of life that all gardens could invest more in.

Scoping up fallen deciduous leaves and putting them in the bin? You’re stealing from yourself. Why bother.

Tf