Leave the Leaves

No one rakes the forest.  

Or, no one should rake the forest.  Because I suspect there are places where trees cover up the clear blue sky and humans feel compelled to rake the fallen leaves into piles and then burn or bag them up.  Well, actually, I don't just suspect.  I know there are people who live in forested areas and then work themselves into a tizzy because they just HAVE to get all of those $%@# leaves raked up!

Sure, I get it.  We want people to see that we care about where we live.  And, too many of us have gotten it into our heads that leaves on the ground are a bad thing.  

It's not just that.  Sometimes people see Fall as a time of closure.  If you clean up the yard and the outdoor areas around you, it says "ok, Summer's over and I'm prepared for the Winter."  All of the mistakes you might have made in your yard and garden can be erased with a good mowing down and raking up.  And, we don't have to see the stems that were once beautiful flowers.  Sometimes those reminders are painful.  These things were beautiful for such a short period of time, and now there is only this dry bunch of sticks and leaves.  The green leaves are tattered and not as lovely as they once were.

Things are ragged.  Tired.  

And we don't like ragged and tired, because we don't want to feel ragged and tired ourselves.

Sometimes people clean things up because they don't want to admit to themselves that the growing season is over.  There is still a desire to do more.  More weeding, more caretaking.  But the options are a bit more limited in October in the northern areas.  So clean it up.  It shows progress and there is definitely significant visual changes that can be quite satisfying.

Or maybe it's the old "get it done" feeling.  We know we're going to want to clean it up at some point, so might as well do it now.  There is always something to that attitude.  If a person feels like doing something now and they might not feel like it later, then ... why not?

Well, there are a whole bunch of reasons "why not."  And they are all hoping that you don't mow your lawn that "one last time" and you leave the leaves and plant residue in your perennial plantings and annual gardens.  So, once again, I am using the farm blog to ask those who read it to consider things you can do to support pollinators and other beneficial critters where you live.  And, I will also you point you to the Xerces Society, which is pushing the #LeavetheLeaves campaign this year.

The Genuine Faux Farm has evolved its approach to Fall clean up over the years.  Some of it has been due to changes in what our farming goals have been.

For example, when we would grow a full 200 foot by 60 foot plot of tomatoes and basil, complete with straw mulch in the tomato rows - we had a particular strategy for that area.  The basil plants and straw mulch were left to provide shelter, collect snow and prevent soil erosion.  Ideally, we would pull all of the tomato cages and trellising and get the tomato vines out of the field.

The choices we made were balanced between what we had to accomplish given the labor hours we had available, the possible pathogens we might support if certain plant residues were left all winter, and a desire to support a diverse ecosystem.

Over time, we started being more intentional with our desire to not mow the lawn and pasture areas down too low in the fall months.  We usually haven't bothered with raking because the wind tends to distribute our leaves widely before we have a chance to even consider it.  We have, sometimes, run the mower on high to cut up the leaves some in areas where we felt it was important to keep things a little neater.  For example, there are paths and places where we still have to walk during the cold months.  If you add taller grass and other obstacles to snow, it can get lead to a few more tumbles than either of us really wants.

This year the Genuine Faux Farm is going to have to make some more choices about what we cut down and what we leave standing.  We balance future plans with current needs.  And not all of those plans and needs are focused on us.

That's why our farm doesn't mow it all down.  That's why our farm leaves the leaves.  That's why things aren't always straight lines, neat borders and level cut, same species grass.  

It's not that we don't care how things look.  It's just that we aren't necessarily catering to how humans think it looks.  Sometimes we hope the snakes, toads, bumblebees, predator beetles and other critters like what they see at our farm.