One of the best parts of fall is seeing the beautiful foliage decorate the streets of our cities. It can feel quite magical to see grey concrete transformed by bright touches of red, orange, and yellow as our days grow shorter and darker.
Instead of letting those leaves get raked up by your city's collection service, one Redditor shared their story of why they are holding on to them this year.
The scoop
One Redditor offered advice in the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit on how you can utilize foliage in your garden as organic mulch to protect your soil.
"Leaf mulch example: one of my understory beds mulched with sugar maple leaves," the OP wrote. Under the attached images, they add, "Our sugar maple (not pictured) drops spectacular, remarkably uniform yellow leaves that look fantastic as front yard mulch. Lots of species in here including spring ephemerals. Northern wood oats Chasmanthium latifolium with seed heads about half fallen off."
In the attached photos, you can see that the sugar maple leaves have fallen, creating a bed of mulch that covers all of the homeowner's soil.
How it's helping
Natural mulch not only looks nice and seasonal, but also naturally suppresses weeds, stabilizes soil temperature amid temperature changes, and helps retain soil moisture. This tip guides gardeners to use natural alternatives to chemicals for controlling weeds and pests.
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While other natural mulch options are also great for soil, fallen leaves are always free and available in abundance, as long as your streets are tree-lined. These savings are in addition to the regular savings all gardeners can experience simply by replacing groceries from their local market with homegrown vegetables.
Gardening is one of the best activities for both mental and physical health as it keeps you moving in functional ways, moving outdoors, receiving sunlight, and eating more fiber from your home's harvest. Growing your own food also reduces your dependency on mass-produced produce and lowers your home's carbon footprint.
What everyone's saying
The gardening enthusiasts in the comments agreed with the OP's choice of mulch.
"My green thumb mum suggested I mulch, and I've never looked back! It's very natural looking, but I like it!" one commenter added.
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"Tomorrow is leaf pickup day in our neighborhood. All the neighbors were blowing their leaves out to the curb. I was raking them back up towards the house," another announced.
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