Leave your leaves alone: Conservancy Canada

Saskatchewan people haven’t broken out the snow shovels just yet, but there’s another chore that pops up every fall: raking leaves.

However, a nature advocacy group is asking you to keep the rake in the shed.

Andrew Holland, the national media relations director with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, said there are actually quite a few benefits to keeping some leaves in your yard.

“The whole thing is to encourage Canadians to rethink how they view their own lawn. By leaving a layer or two of leaves in your backyard or front lawn, it can be beneficial for your own grass next spring … (and) those leaves also help nature in different ways as well,” he said.

First off, the leaves can help you prepare your grass to grow better in the spring.

“The leaves act as free fertilizer for your lawn and they’ll break down similar to them falling in a forest,” he explained.

If you have large piles of leaves, you could also move some into your garden or around the base of trees for the same reason.

It can also be great for the ecosystem to forgo raking.

“(Leaves) act as a small insulation blanket for insects, and those insects are important for birds. Birds need a food source. You also get moths and caterpillars that need a bit of warmth as well, so just a layer or two of leaves can really give them a fighting chance to survive our tough winter climate,” Holland continued.

That being said, there is such a thing as too many leaves.

“Just assess how many leaves you have,” Holland said. “If you have so many trees and so many leaves, you’re going to want to rake some. This won’t be a one-size-fits-all scenario for everybody. You don’t want to smother your turf, either.”

Huge chunks of leaves could bunch up and freeze if there’s heavy rain, which could create problems.

However, Holland thinks leaving some on the lawn is a great, low-effort way to give nature a hand.

“Some people will give you pressure, your neighbours. You might get the stink eye from people with the immaculate lawn. They might want to say, ‘Why are you so lazy?’ And you can say, ‘Look, I’m actually helping nature and I don’t have to rake my leaves because the Nature Conservancy of Canada told me so,’ ” he said with a laugh.