Do you love a tidy garden? Your wildlife doesn’t. 🍂
Do you sweep up your leaves or blow them away? Why not leave them instead? They’re perfect for sheltering insects that feed robins, blackbirds and wrens, and they keep soil life humming. Hedgehogs, frogs and toads love them too.
Of course, you may need to clear a few paths to prevent people slipping, but on lawns, flower beds and borders, leaf mulch is a gift. We need to stop aiming for monoculture lawns that may as well be plastic. Embrace variety instead. I’ve learnt to love the dandelions in spring as early pollinators for bees, and my lawns now hum and buzz all summer, home to a wonderful mix of plants and creatures.
Here are a few more ways to make your garden alive — great for you, and great for the planet:
- Moss is beautiful — and useful. It holds moisture, slows run-off, protects bare soil, shelters tiny invertebrates and even signals clean air.
- Moles are soil engineers. Their tunnelling aerates compacted ground and boosts drainage. (See my blog: I’ve Learnt to Love Moles
- Ragwort is unfairly maligned. It’s a nectar powerhouse for hundreds of pollinators — including the cinnabar moth. Grazing animals avoid it when it’s growing; the real risk is in contaminated hay. So instead of waging war on every yellow flower, let it stand where it’s safe.
- Bonfires are a bane for air quality and hidden wildlife. Read my blog To Burn or Not to Burn
Why not celebrate a living, thriving, wilding garden rather than a manicured desert? Keep rough grass, daisies and dandelions, log and leaf piles, and fewer hard surfaces. Your worms, beetles, hedgehogs and birds will thank you.
Start with the leaves. They’re gloriously colourful and vital for worms, hedgehogs, frogs, bugs — and a myriad of other creatures. Stop being a neat freak and let nature do its thing.
Love nature. Love leaves. Love the wild.
Or as the Beatles (almost) sang — Let it Bee! 🐝
#LeaveTheLeaves #NaturePositiveGardening #SoilHealth #Hedgehogs #Pollinators #Rewilding
