Leave the leaves

We raked the leaves yesterday, it took us maybe an hour. Pretty good, huh? Only the yard is still full of leaves. Not only did we not do the whole job, we’re pretty psyched about it. Don’t get me wrong, I like raking. I love how neat it looks and fooling myself I won’t need to do so much work in the Spring if I do a good job now. But that is not what this is about.

Leaves are part of nature’s cycle and one aspect of what Rich and I are up to is being more in tune with nature as we all face issues of global warming. We need to better understand the systems that have been disrupted and to correct the way we interface with nature. So when I started seeing articles pop up in my Facebook feed (yep, still on Facebook) I paid attention. Not only are the leaves essential to the health of the soil, they are a nursery for moths and butterflies. Not only that, I imagine there all sorts of other organisms involved.

Ever notice how nice leaf mold smells? (No? Just me? Yeah, I love the smell of patchouli too.) It has got to be rich with fungi and it holds a ton of moisture. I’m guessing about the fungi, but to me that smell is one of my favorites. It’s the smell of places where the exciting discoveries are made in the Spring. It’s where you uncover mushrooms popping up, small rodent pathways that were built over the winter months, shed snake skins at the base of stone walls, they harbor endless delights.

So there we were, the drive was raked and we were left with some spare hours on a Sunday. We turned it into a coffee break with homemade apple walnut scones. Join us, take a break, leave the leaves where they are and let’s see more wonderful things out in our yards and gardens next Spring.