Why a little effort raking leaves is better than a lot
Farmers are no strangers to dealing with predators. But can you imagine a predator like a lioness? In certain parts of Africa, lioness attacks on cattle make for a particularly interesting challenge. Now, if you have the money, you can build a huge fence that can work reasonably well. But that is a very expensive and not a realistic option for many.
A more common approach is to build stockades from logs and thorn bushes to make a protective pen. But it’s a lot of work herding cattle in for the evening, and out again in the morning. Unfortunately, these pens are also not foolproof to determined lionesses, either.
Fortunately, there is a different solution that only involves a bit of paint. Stamping large eyes on the rear ends of the cattle seems to be very effective at deterring lioness attacks. A lioness likes to be sneaky and stealthy, and if they think they’ve been spotted by their target, they will abandon the hunt. The good news is stamping an eye pattern on a cattle butt only takes a minute or two. It’s the solution with the least effort, too.
When faced with a big problem, it seems downright strange to think of using less effort as a way to solve the problem. But it’s an idea you may want to consider in yard work, too. When autumn rolls around, and the leaves start to pile up, you may be doing way too much work dealing with the leaves. In this article, we will talk about why you should leave the leaves on your yard. We’re going to talk about how leaves:
- create a habitat
- decompose
- leave nutrients
First, we’re going to talk about how leaves on your lawn create a habitat.
A bunch of leaves on your lawn may not look like much
But looking more closely, there are many nooks and crannies between the leaves and the grass. These little pockets are the habitat we are talking about. It makes a place for insects to hang out. Leaves are actually a good food source for a range of microbes and smaller insects, too. But we’re not talking about one or two kinds of microbes or bugs. There are dozens of different types of insects that can live in these areas. The more variety of insects, the more they make a viable food source for larger animals like birds, too. But what is the point of leaving a habitat space for microbes, bugs, and birds? This takes us right into the next point, on decomposition.
How fast do leaves decompose in a bit wet pile?
There’s no doubt if you leave a giant pile of leaves in one spot, it’s going to take them a long time to break down. Actually, it’s optimal to spread them out as much as possible and even mix them around to help with decomposition. It’s this decomposition which is part of the natural process of microbes and insects working away on them. Really, you’re letting nature do all the hard work for you in breaking up the leaves.
It certainly makes a lot more sense than leaving them in a large pile to sit for a much longer time. But why do we really care at all about decomposing leaves? Why not just pile them up away and out of sight? This brings us to the third and final point about leaves on your lawn: the nutrients that are left in them.
Trees put an enormous amount of energy and nutrients in making leaves every year
It takes a long time to grow the leaves, and they make good use of them in the shining summer months to make food for the plant. But there’s still a lot of energy and nutrients left in those leaves — even though they change colour and look a bit ragged.
These nutrients can be very beneficial for your lawn and garden. Again, here is nature doing all the work and providing free fertilizer for us! Still, it’s not going to do anything any good if the leaves don’t decompose — they need to be broken down for your lawn to get the benefits of those nutrients.
So does this mean I don’t need to do any work at all?
Unfortunately, you can’t escape entirely unscathed. If there are so much clutter covering your lawn you can’t even see the grass at all, it’s a sign there are too many leaves. You won’t get decomposition going fast enough to work through it all. But you can also lend a helping hand by running over leaves with your lawnmower. A lawnmower can do a marvellous job of breaking up the leaves into much smaller fragments, speeding up decomposition.
Ultimately, the real idea is that there are benefits to leaving some leaves on your lawn and you may be hurting it by raking up every last leaf that falls.
It is a mistake to let too many leaves fall at once though
So it would help if you kept an eye on things. There’s nothing worse than having a gross and slick layer of wet leaves on your lawn, too. Only dry leaves are going to go through a lawnmower and break apart to speed up decomposition. The longer you ignore the leaves, the thicker the layer will be. The thicker the layer, the more chance you might be left with a stuck-together sludgy goo covering your lawn.
It’s review time
We covered a few aspects of working — or rather, working less — with leaves on your lawn. Leaves can make an important habitat on your lawn for microbes and insects. This makes a vital food supply for other larger animals like birds. But it also helps decompose the leaves. And decomposition will happen even faster if the leaves are spread over a larger area — like over your lawn!
This decomposition is valuable as the vast amount of nutrients in the leaves will trickle down to your lawn. The long and short of it is that you don’t need to get out there and zap every last leaf on your lawn. But you can lend a helping hand by running the lawnmower over them to help them break up, too. Just don’t let the leaves get out of control and get too thick as decomposition will take a lot longer.
Guarding a herd from lioness attacks may seem like a daunting task that requires a lot of vigilance and effort. But keeping eyes on your cattle butts may be a low effort trick to keep things under control. Similarly, you may be putting in a lot of effort in managing leaves but it may not be necessary — and even be hurting your lawn.
Next Step:
Read more on the Eye-Cow project and its progress here.
