(WWJ) — As we get deeper into fall, you may be dreading raking your leaves.
If you’ve been putting it off, don’t sweat it too much. In fact, environmental experts say it’s actually better to not rake your leaves.
Aaron Hiday, an organic waste expert with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), tells WWJ Newsradio 950’s Luke Sloan that letting your leaves stay on your lawn through the winter and spring actually benefits our environment.
Hiday says the leaves provide a layer of winter protection for pollinators living in the grass.
“It’s actually a great insulation barrier between the snow and the ground for a lot of the base-of-the-food-chain critters that are gonna be living under there during the winter,” he said. “When you think of pollinators — butterflies and moths and things like that — a lot of their larvae are under those leaves. And if you leave them on your yard, you actually can have more pollinators in the spring.”
Michiganders should certainly avoid burning leaves, according to Hiday. Instead, it’s best to either leave them, compost them or mulch them and cover your flower beds with them.
Leaving the leaves on the ground is also good for your soil, according to Hiday.
“Leaving the leaves in place is actually more natural in the way that Michigan soils were built over many thousands of years of trees covering this whole area, dropping their leaves, those leaves then decomposing in place and building up the soil,” Hiday said.
You can do the same thing with your lawn, Hiday said.
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