Leave the leaves – the new, easy way to deal with autumn gardens

Leave the leaves is the new gardening mantra.

It immediately appeals to me more than getting out a leaf blower or rake, bagging up leaves and finding somewhere to store them while they break down into leaf mould. (Never mind actually putting them in a car and taking them to the local dump!)

Raking leaves was the most tedious task of my childhood. My mother ushered us all out for hours of back-breaking tedium.

Yet today’s ‘leave the leaves’ campaign on social media suggests that much of this work was unnecessary. Others suggest, however, that leaving the leaves could damage your garden or even your health.

Having left leaves on my own borders for 15+ years with no ill-effects, I’ve done some more research to see where we can leave the leaves and where they would be better swept up.

Can you leave the leaves on borders?

You can leave leaves on most borders without any problem. They will break down over the winter and by spring, you’ll hardly notice them.

As they break down, they’ll return nutrition to the soil.

Piles of leaves also offer habitats to wildlife. People have pointed out – correctly – that this includes slugs and snails. But it also includes slug and snail predators, such as hedgehogs, frogs, toads, slow-worms and ground beetles.

There are only two potential problems with leaving leaves on borders.

Firstly, some trees have very thick, big leaves that take a long time to break down. The leaves from my Magnolia grandiflora can cover smaller plants, such as Saxifrage ‘London Pride’. This would deprive them of light, so I do push them off (when I notice).

Do leaves blow around the garden if you leave them?

Many people see leaves blowing around a city street. They assume that leaves on borders will blow around the garden in the