How Raking Your Yard is Destroying the Planet
Raking your lawn might conform to the rules of your HOA, but it comes at a cost to the planet.
Raking leaves, removing dried plants and logs and keeping a spotless (barren) lawn have become societal norms, but these acts actively harm local ecosystems.
Nature did not evolve to be spotless, and though we humans like to think we are separate from Nature, we are not.
Our yards, of which there are 44 million acres worth in the US alone, are not separate from the Earth. While one person removing leaves every fall won’t have a large global impact, millions of people, raking millions of yards, does. In the United States alone, 33 million tons of leaves get thrown into landfills every year.
When organic matter like leaves or food ends up in the landfill, it doesn’t decompose properly. The layers of garbage cause a lack of oxygen, which means the aerobic bacteria that normally decompose the material into nutrient rich compost can’t survive. Instead, anaerobic bacteria called methanogens break the material down, releasing methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.
By leaving the leaves, we can avoid excessive waste being dumped into landfills, while helping rebuild local ecosystems.
Fallen leaves provide food, shelter and insulation for many creatures, such as turtles, toads, firefly larvae, beetles, bees, butterflies, and moths. A layer of leaves also helps suppress weeds, helps the soil retain moisture and adds nutrients back to the soil as they decompose. So instead of spending time and money on mulch and fertilizer, just leave the leaves and let Nature do the work for you.
Removing dried plants is another popular fall chore, but waiting until spring to clean up your garden is a more eco-friendly option. The hollow stems of dried plants provide shelter for bees and other insects to burrow in during the winter, and the heads of dried flowers have seeds which provide food for local wildlife.
When you remove these from your yard, you’re not just taking away potential food and shelter from local wildlife, but you’re throwing away insects that have already laid their eggs on or burrowed under the leaves or inside the hollow stems.
All this isn’t to say you can’t do any yard work. If you really get the itch to rake, you can:
Rake them into garden beds to use as mulch
Make compost for the spring by mixing leaves with grass clippings and keeping it moist throughout the winter
Mulch the leaves into smaller pieces with a lawn mower - this makes great fertilizer for your grass and garden
Rake them into a pile (at least 30ft from the house for fire safety) and let them decompose - this will provide shelter for local wildlife and put nutrients back into the soil as the leaves break down
Make a brush pile with leaves, sticks, branches and logs for wildlife to shelter in
Leaves are not litter, and humans are not separate from the Earth. We take up a lot of space on this planet, and our individual actions combine to have a large impact on the Earth, and on all those who call it home. By leaving the leaves and making other eco-friendly changes in how we care for the land, we can support local ecosystems and restore the balance between human spaces and the natural world.
Sources:
https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves
https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2015/OctNov/Gardening/Leave-the-Leaves
https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/what-on-earth-raking-leaves-9.6940422
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/should-you-rake-leaves/
