Who Knew that Leaves in Your Garden Bed Are Additional Insect Habitat?
Leaf litter is the twigs, leaves, bark and other dead plant materials that fall to the ground. This beneficial layer of decomposing material provides food, places to lay eggs, and critical winter habitat for beneficial insects.
Allowing leaves to remain where they fall is crucial to maintaining healthy habitat on your property. A thin layer of leaves left on the lawn is good for grass. Leaves decompose and provide nutrients, and many mowers mulch leaves and grass clippings as they mow. If your lawn is covered in a thick layer of leaves, consider raking them to the edges of your lawn. Leaves in the garden bed are perfect for protecting your plants from the cold and snow, as well as providing nourishment to the soil. It’s particularly important not to disturb the leaves directly under trees, or the leaves in your woods (yes, I’ve seen over-zealous landscaping companies blowing leaves out of people’s woods!) which house large numbers of insects.
Everything in nature needs a home—a place to find refuge, to rear offspring, to store food, to spend the winter. The World Wildlife Fund puts it succinctly: “Habitat loss is probably the greatest threat to the variety of life on this planet today”. (https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/wildlife_practice/problems/habitat_loss_degradation/)
And just a word about leaf blowers. If I had my way, gas-powered leaf blowers (and gas mowers, for that matter) would be banned. The sound and air pollution they produce is bad for people and the environment. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimates that using a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour releases emissions equivalent to driving a car for 15 hours, or 1100 miles.(https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fact-sheets/sore-small-engine-fact-sheet). These emissions include: carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. In addition, the high-intensity noise pollution (decibel levels of 80 and above; anything above 70 is considered dangerous) is harmful to the still-developing auditory systems of infants and children, as well as increasing anxiety, stress, and hypertension and potentially damaging adult hearing,. (https://mountsinaiexposomics.org/gas-leaf-blowers-are-health-hazards/). For wildlife that depend on sound to communicate, the constant drone of gas-powered leaf blowers severely impacts their ability to interact and defend against predators.
Given the variety of electric and battery-powered leaf blowers (and mowers) available, there really is no reason to use gas. Myself? I use my trusty battery-powered motor, and for the leaves I do remove, I just reach for a rake and get some beneficial exercise, as well.