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Gardener’s Harvest

© Mary Henry

As Thanksgiving approaches we often think of the metaphor of the harvest as applying strictly to the agricultural bounty being brought in at the end of this growing season. Most of us have only a tomato plant or two and think in terms of fall garden chores, not harvests. We need to open our eyes to the crop lying all around us, our neighborhood's leaves. For years they have been viewed as a problem to be dealt with before winter arrives. We mustn't leave them on the lawn, in the gutters or lying in drifts on the walks. They must be raked and bagged and put out for the City to remove. Whoa! Would you jerk out your tomato plant with all the fruit attached and put it in the garbage can? Would you pick all the apples from your tree and throw them away? Well, if your perennials, trees and shrubs had voices they would be crying out in indignation as you cart off their most useful and appreciated resource. Even your lawn would like a share if they were well-chopped with a mulching mower. In fact, if there are not too many leaves in your yard, you can just mow them into moderately fine pieces (under about 1/2 inch) and use a rake to spread them as evenly as possible over the lawn instead of taking them away.

The leaves that come down from the trees hold most of the nutrients that the trees took out of the soil this season. Why lose that? They also contain minerals that the roots have extracted from the deeper layers of the soil. Only the highest quality loam soil can do without the organic matter that the leaves will add to the soil. Both ends of the soil spectrum, sand and clay, cry out for the addition of more organic matter. That's how they grow up to be loam. So let's talk about how to use all the bounty falling around us.

Leaves can be used as mulch as well as great additions to the compost pile. If you are going to use them as mulch, either run them through a shredder or chop them up with your lawn mower. The resulting pieces stay put in winter winds much better than whole leaves do. Chopped leaves also will not form a soggy mat over delicate perennial tops. A medium to heavy duty shredder is a good community investment for several neighbors. If you have neighbors that you work well with you can work around all the yards with it and make a fun afternoon ending in a backyard cookout or a trip to a local restaurant to be served and cleaned up after.

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