Leave the Leaves Alone

Every week, all across town, I see gardeners gathering up leaves and putting them in trashcans.

The leaves should be left on the ground because gathering them up is totally disruptive to the nutrient cycle/needs of plants. The fallen leaves contain essential minerals for the plant, which reabsorbs the minerals from the fallen leaves that break down into the soil.

Furthermore, allowing leaves to remain on the ground traps moisture in the soil, and this means that the plants will not need to be watered as frequently. Big picture, as we receive only a fraction of our water from local wells, this means that we will use less water from the Colorado River and the Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers. This will benefit the wildlife struggling to survive in those places, as well as the people who depend on the functioning of those ecosystems for their livelihoods.

Once the largest wetland in all of North America, the Colorado River Delta receives less than one percent of its pre-Hoover/Parker/Glen Canyon Dam flows. The Sacramento Delta is also in a similar state of water starvation. The rivers and their deltas need our help, and one way we can provide that help is by letting the fallen leaves rot on the ground in our yards. The leaves trap moisture in the soil, shade plant roots, provide nutrients, create a nursery for insects and a feast for birds, and give the rivers a little more of what they need to survive.

Lisa Novick

La Cañada Flintridge