Leaves are falling. At least some of them are.
For some strange reason, the trees around my house like to hang onto their leaves. They keep most of them until we are about to get the first bit of snow. Then they drop them, just in time to be covered.
Seriously. The keep them until the very last minute. I swear you can hear a thump as they all fall at once at a time when it is too late to rake.
So I don’t tend to get caught up in the rake or don’t rake dilemma. The trees solve that little problems for me.
There seems to be a trend to let the leaves fall where they may and stay there until spring. Then, you have to wait for a while in the spring. There could be helpful little critters living in the leaves, which is the whole point of letting them just stay there in the first place.
But some want things to look neat. They want the leaves gone, so leaves get raked.
It does look nice, but the only good reason I can see to rake leaves is to jump into a big pile of them, in a celebration of all things fall.
But there are people who have to clean them up.
I know some who have good reasons. One person, who got a couple tick bites while gardening this year wants to see all her leaves gone to give ticks fewer places to hide. Really, rather than bagged and taken away to the compost, I think she would prefer to attack them with a flame thrower, just to make sure the ticks get what they deserve. Can’t say I disagree.
It may seem like a good reason to get rid of them, but there are still helpful little bugs and things that need a place to spend the winter.
So my leaves will stay where they are for now. Well, not exactly where they are. As I said, they are still on the trees. But when they finally get around to falling, they can stay there until spring.
They say it’s good for the environment. Although there could be just a touch of laziness involved.
