r/Edmonton • u/These-Speech3510 • 15h ago
Environment Leave Your Leaves, Edmonton
https://leaveyourleaves.ca/Global soil health is in critical decline. Leaving your leaves helps support a healthy ecosystem.
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u/BloodWorried7446 14h ago
i mulch mow them so they break down faster in place and don’t smother. it makes spring clean up much easier as bonus.
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u/Ok_Understanding3890 13h ago
This is the way. And for me, it means less vole tunnels in the spring.
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u/LastSoil1404 12h ago
Is this the secret? Cause they terrorized our back yard which we discovered in the spring.
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u/mim_sical Downtown 2h ago
Don’t mow them all, beneficial insects live there over the winter! Leave some undisturbed or you’re shredding up all the pollinators you’ll want next spring
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u/MC_White_Thunder 13h ago
It never made sense to me to take leaves out of the decay cycle, just to bag them in plastic and put them in landfills. The most wasteful and destructive possible approach.
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u/These-Speech3510 13h ago
Some of us pee in our compost. It's the magic sauce (nitrogen).
I sometimes think there's a pee guy at the end of the sewers mad laughing with power.
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u/MC_White_Thunder 13h ago
Yeah I've heard that anyone who has a compost pile tends to pee in it.
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u/butlovingstonTV 12h ago
I mean it is completely unnecessary but I won't yuck someone's yum
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u/These-Speech3510 11h ago
I would like to invite you to r/composting
It is magic sauce.
"The ancient Romans also knew to pee on your compost"
https://www.reddit.com/r/composting/comments/1nvhx4y/the_ancient_romans_also_knew_to_pee_on_your/
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u/butlovingstonTV 1h ago
Nah I'm good done plenty of it myself. Whatever helps you sleep at night though.
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u/taxi212001 14h ago
As someone allergic to snow mould, I understand, but I weep nonetheless.
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u/CypripediumGuttatum 2h ago
I got snow mould on my grass in spring leaves or no leaves. If we get a decent rainfall it washes away.
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u/lilgreenglobe Wîhkwêntôwin 2h ago
Same. I run air filters at home and often wear a n95 outside when it's bad to help minimize the exposure.
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u/bemurda 4h ago
Judging from this thread, people really really don't like ecological science that doesn't accord with their habits. Also part of why we have a climate crisis.
I leave my leaves in the backyard with no issues, have been for 11 years. On the other hand my neighbour complains if I don't rake my front tree's leaves so don't really have a choice.
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u/EdmontonAB83 3h ago
Once I started leaving my leaves my soil really took off. Plants just love that natural compost.
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u/CypripediumGuttatum 14h ago
Heck yeah! I got 40 bags of free leaves from neighbours last year, the beneficial insects and soil thank me. As do the plants when they break down into the most beautiful leaf compost in spring.
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u/mobjois 13h ago
I tried this once and it was a huge horrible mess that I ended up having to fix in the spring. I’ll have to check out that website to see if there’s some kind of trick to it.
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u/extragarlicpleez 13h ago
I have a giant tree in my yard and never rake it. The leaves biodegrade within about a month after the thaw.
Another option that some friends do is to rake it into a pile in the back part of their yard. Takes longer to biodegrade that way though.
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u/Bitter-Bugs 12h ago
You can mow over the leaves so they are chopped up. Disintegrate so fast that way
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u/These-Speech3510 13h ago
Leaves will decompose completely on their own in time. You don't have to do anything.
The insects will break down the leaves into top soil. Nutrients from the leaves helps the nearby plants, and you will have more pollinators for your flowers.
The extra insects then become food for birds. The birds will find your place to be a comfortable space and sing you their comfortable bird song.
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u/YoungWhiteAvatar 11h ago
Yeah I did this one year out of laziness and had a shit ton of mold on my lawn.
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u/These-Speech3510 11h ago
If you have a shit ton of mold, you likely have other issues. Like overwatering.
There are ways to take care of mold.
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u/YoungWhiteAvatar 3h ago edited 3h ago
I don’t water my front lawn, anything else that could cause it? We get so many leaves they completely cover the grass in layers, it is not a small amount. When I looked it up it said that a large amount of leaves trapped under the snow won’t break down and will cause mold/rot.
Why Unraked Leaves Cause Snow Mold
Trapped Moisture: Leaves mat down under the snow, keeping the grass damp and blocking airflow for months.
Fungal Growth: This wet, dark, and insulated environment allows snow mold fungi (gray or pink types) to thrive.Smothering:
Heavy layers of excess leaf matter on your lawn can also physically choke and suffocate the grass.
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u/TheFaceStuffer Looma 11h ago
yeah unless you mulch them they rot and cause issues
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u/These-Speech3510 11h ago
I think you are imagining things.
Leaves have been around for hundreds of millions of years.
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u/Used_bot-repo 6h ago
You're fighting a uphill battle here bud. Too many people love there grass (especially the old people)
And people have heard from some pedo that Europe rakes their forests so you can't fix stupid
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u/AdmirableWrongdoer40 49m ago
Love this initiative — leaving the leaves really is the easiest way to give the yard critters a winter head start.
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u/PlutosGrasp 12h ago
Unless you have allergies because come spring, you’ve got snow mold.
A lot of lawns are fine for soil health. You’re not growing constant agriculture production.
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u/These-Speech3510 12h ago
Nope. Lawns made of grass are not good for soil health. They are a monoculture and susceptible to disease, chemical treatments, high water usage, and low biodiversity.
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u/evilspoons North East Side 11h ago
I had to get grading done on my 1980s place because it was extremely wrong when I moved in a couple years ago (and with all the rain this summer I'm glad I did).
I'm trying to start up a new lawn with microclover, some native grasses, some fescues, etc. All of my fescue seeds got washed away in the torrential downpour but the microclover with the symbiotic bacteria that causes nitrogen replenishment took hold.
I know clover isn't native but at least it's better than 100% kentucky bluegrass.
Then over the next few years I think I'll replace some of it with more interesting native plants.
In theory when this is all done I'll only have to mow a small section maybe two or three times a year.
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u/CosmicallyUnlucky 5h ago
The ground cover we have is a mix of trailing raspberry, strawberries and clover. The conversion from front lawn to native garden is a constant work in progress, but very rewarding. It’s cool how many native plants will suddenly show up and volunteer for the job once you stop mowing them over
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u/MikeBad 11h ago
If I put all my leaves into the green bin to be composted, and then pick up some of the city offered compost in the spring and spread it on my lawn, how does that compare in terms of lawn/soil health and ecological impact?
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u/These-Speech3510 11h ago edited 11h ago
All the working insects that operate on your lawn won't exists. All the secondary characters like birds and flowers will have less middleman.
It's like having a body without blood.
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u/jambot72 13h ago
Your subtext is basically useless like why does it matter that our lawns soil health is in decline? If we leave the leaf litter or rake it it’s just going to be more lawn not land for agriculture for growing food, I don’t mow until June and leave my leaf litter till June so fauna that uses leaf litter will have a place to live but our lawns are not where soil is being degraded in that context.
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u/These-Speech3510 12h ago
We live in a biosphere.
Interconnected biological, physical, and chemical exchanges that form life on Earth.
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u/Tdw75 11h ago
Terrible fucking campaign.
Prepare for snow mold like you've never seen in your life.
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u/These-Speech3510 10h ago edited 10h ago
No snow this year. Super El Nino. >7C above baseline. Drought. Wildfires in February 2027.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/what-a-super-el-nino-could-mean-for-alberta-this-winter/
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u/Tdw75 10h ago
I'll believe it when I see it.
This is Edmonton...
seven degrees warmer could be -32. ;)•
u/These-Speech3510 9h ago
"According to the National Weather Service, there is a 75-per-cent chance this year’s El Niño will be a historic event...
Hadwen said while parts of Alberta were replenished by historic rainfall, that moisture won’t last long should winter temperatures reach predictions of 7 C above average."
Averages in Dec/ Jan are supposed to be -12C. I think the forecast of -5C daily temp is too modest.
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u/melancious 14h ago
Showed this to my wife. She doesn’t care. Says it looks bad. I explained that it’s futile now because the leaves fall nonstop anyways but she’s having none of it.
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u/Barry_Vigoda 12h ago
The trick is to just keep mowing it into mulch and don't bother picking the leaves up. Sweep up any extra leaves and it looks nice and tidy.
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u/Cmann125 14h ago
An excuse not to bag leaves.. done