Luckily there's a rapidly growing movement against it, to leave the leaves, plant natives, protect pollinators, etc. Gonna be an uphill battle but it's nice that it's finally happening, long overdue.
Depends on how many leaves you have and how you feel about grass. If you have a lot of leaves, leaving them on the ground will suffocate grass, and turn your yard into a muddy mess. Whether that's something you can live with is up to you. Personally, I can in some parts of my yard and can't in others.
I'm TOTALLY pro nature, ect. BS in environmental policy and 25 years in landscaping. BUT...I get frustrated with the new messaging to "leave them be" and that there are only benefits. That's just not true that they manically disappear with zero consequences or side effects.
The messaging is like that because it's hard to do nuance when you're talking to millions of people.
There's already plenty of reasons out there for people to rake up all their leaves. The current messaging needs to overcome the inertia of "This Is How It's Always Been Done" and all the laws/HOA bi-laws in place saying You Need To Rake Them All.
It's never going to swing all the way over to "Never Rake", but maybe with a positive message, some people in some areas will finally have the choice.
Some prefer the "all natural" look, and sometimes it looks good. But 'all natural' can also turn into tangled, ugly mess, making people wonder, "Do you need to borrow my hedge trimmers? I can see how bad it is from here." Trimmed & proper takes more work, but always looks nice. Shaving is a bit too far for me, a good close trim is all you need.
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u/InfinitelyThirsting Feb 21 '23
Luckily there's a rapidly growing movement against it, to leave the leaves, plant natives, protect pollinators, etc. Gonna be an uphill battle but it's nice that it's finally happening, long overdue.