Post date: Oct 24, 2019 5:59:40 PM
The practice of raking leaves in Fall is grounded in good logic and science. When days get shorter and cooler, trees prepare for harsh winter and shed leaves.
The insects in the gardens also understand that winter will soon kill them all. So they furiously lay eggs.
While they will die in the frost, their eggs will remain warm and protected. How? The eggs are laid below the Fall leaves.
These eggs will hatch in spring and soon your will have caterpillars munching off the young plants.
Raking away the fall leaves is a practice that controls this egg laying activity, be removing the habitats for insects.
It then grew into a national obsession where every single leaf was removed. Then the clever yardmen arrived to blow the leaves below the bushes, which helps insect populations immensely.
What can you do? The period from Oct 15 to Nov 15 when most leaves here in Atlanta fall, I do not let any brown leaf lie in the yard. I take every day. No leaves even on the plant beds which I always mulched with crushed leaves.
I collect and crush them and store them in bins I have made with hardware cloth. They begin decomposing there and that habitat of microbes is not friendly for laying eggs.
By End November, the cold has set in and the insects have gone. I return the mulch to the yard. It keeps my beds warm and moist. It helps nematode populations to thrive and take down any insect eggs that may persist.
What I am left with is a largely insect free yard in the spring. I use no organic or inorganic pesticide of any kind at my yard. No sprays or powders.
Just this fall routine takes care of my yard. Give it a shot this season.