Fall is ushered in by shorter days, cooler temperatures, football games all weekend long, and by falling leaves. When late summer is dry, and days that follow stay sunny and cool, we tend to have a more colorful leaf change. We have, in fact, had a great one this year!

Once days begin getting shorter, the chlorophyl needed to turn sunlight into food begins breaking down and pigments of other colors are visible on deciduous trees. Then abscission occurs, which is when the leaf detaches from its stem. Once the show is over however, what are we to do with all these valuable leaves that have fallen to the ground?

The phrase ‘leave the leaves’ has become quite popular thanks to the growth of environmental consciousness. Aside from the fact that this is the simplest thing to do in terms of yard work, the benefits of using fallen leaves far outweighs the reasons to remove them.

- Dead leaves still have nutrient value, and when they break down, they add organic matter back to the soil.

- Shredding or mowing over leaves allows them to break down more quickly. The alternative is keeping them whole, to protect the insect eggs, caterpillars, and cocoons living in them.

- Fallen leaves provide cozy habitat for overwintering insects, not to mention cute creatures such as lizards and frogs. And according to the Xerces Society, at any point in their lifecycle, fireflies may “be found in leaf litter, under rocks or moss or rotting wood, in small burrows, or even in the furrowed bark of trees.”

- Leaves serve as a natural mulch, suppressing weeds and providing a uniform look to beds and areas with no grass.

- Dead leaves are a tree’s carpet, keeping moisture in the soil and insulating the roots during the cold winter months.

If there is simply no place for leaf piles in the landscape, consider asking neighbors if they’d like them or taking them to a green or vegetative landfill. Two locally are in Ball Ground and in Marietta. Both charge a fee for dumping leaves, but at least you know they’re being recycled.

Going back to the growth of a more environmentally conscious movement, statistics from the E.P.A. show that in less than three decades, the millions of tons of yard trimmings entering landfills declined more than 4%. That’s huge considering that in 1990, yard waste accounted for 35 million tons of the municipal solid waste in landfills. Over those almost 30 years, many state legislatures stepped up to help reduce green materials being put in landfills by increasing efforts to educate homeowners on the benefits of composting and of leaving leaves and grass trimmings.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division currently has programs in place that encourage municipalities to divert yard trimmings from landfills by composting them or using them as mulch. Everyone wins when we ‘leave the leaves’!

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