Is Removing Leaves a Good Idea or Not?

Let's be clear from the start: raking up leaves is not a good idea and causes more harm than good to your garden. In nature, everything is in balance and everything has its purpose. Even if it seems at first glance that something is random, it really isn't. Tree leaves don't fall for no reason – they are food for the soil beneath the tree.

That's why try to leave the leaves unraked this year. Believe us, you'll quickly get over any discomfort when you see how beautiful the leaf carpet under the trees actually is!

Read on to learn why it's smart to leave your garden in peace until spring.

Autumn is not a miserable time when you have to rake leaves in any weather, but rather a pleasant time when you can sit peacefully on the terrace, take a break from garden chores, drink tea and watch the leaves fall.

Unraked tree leaves are food for your garden

ERR Novaator wrote an entire article with the help of scientists about why raking leaves is not the smartest thing to do in the garden and is actually quite harmful.

Tree leaves provide nutrients both to the tree itself and to the grass beneath it. Save your time, energy and money. All of it? Yes. You don't need to spend time and energy raking up leaves, or money arranging their removal and buying mulch or fertilizer. The leaves left under the tree will do the work themselves.

Mari Ivask, head of the Department of Environmental Protection at Tallinn University of Technology's Tartu College,

says in the mentioned article that tree leaves are especially beneficial if they are shredded with a mower in autumn, for example, and left to decompose under the tree. This way, there's not much left of them by spring.

Leaves protect tree roots from the cold

Fallen leaves also protect tree roots from the cold, which is especially important during winters with little snow. Let the nutrients soak into the ground during winter and if you really must, rake up the leaves in spring. But even then, you can simply rake them close to the trunk – there's no need to put them in plastic bags or, worse, burn them. Well, that's not even allowed!

Insects overwinter under the leaves

If you rake up the leaves, you're taking insects' winter home away from them. That wasn't your plan, was it? Insects are just as necessary for your garden as the nutrients from decomposing leaves are for the grass and tree itself.

A colorful leaf carpet is simply beautiful

If you manage to keep the rake and leaf blower in the shed, you'll soon see how beautiful your garden becomes. Sit on the terrace and simply enjoy the colorful view.

New neighbors

Actually, we recommend you go even further this year and simply leave your garden in peace until spring. In addition to not raking the leaves, don't remove the stems of summer flowers either. You'll have plenty of time to do that in spring. You'll soon start noticing birds coming to perch on your unkempt and dried flower stems and looking for food. If we haven't convinced you, read this article.

Less noise, better mood

Leaf blowers can certainly make life quite comfortable, but unfortunately they spread awful noise and whining. The less noise, the better it is for our mental health.

According to Novaator, leaf blowers kick up so much dust that rakes could never manage, so "in addition to the noise and combustion residue from the leaf blower, a whole lot of dust and debris is blown into the air that people shouldn't be breathing in. And these stay in the air for longer than when sweeping with a rake."

Frozen beauty

If you leave the leaves and summer flowers unraked, on the first frosty mornings you'll see a beauty that you've never noticed before, because you've always raked the leaves away properly before the cold comes.

Finally, we offer you some visual pleasure from Bodnant Garden, where colorful leaves are nicely left under the trees.

You don't have a home with a garden, but you got inspired? That's wonderful!

Check out properties with gardens here.