Spring cleaning Fall Leaves on a 74° winter day.

It was a day to be outdoors yesterday so we decided to take an hour and rake some leaves.

We have a two huge pecan trees and a burled oak that grace my back patio. They are gorgeous in the summer giving us an abundance of shade, the pecans trees produce tons of excellent pecans in the fall every few years, and the previous owner told us we would grow to hate them - he was totally wrong. They are AMAZING.

They do however drop a ton of pollen in the spring and leaves and acorns in the fall. I blow them off the deck at least once a week, sometimes twice. BUT, the task of raking them up is delayed until winter.

We don’t rake them right away. There are ecological benefits to leaving some leaves on the ground where they can return nutrients to the soil and provide habitat for beneficial insects, invertebrates and wildlife. However, leaving a thick mat of fallen leaves on the lawn can kill grass, and it also can be a hiding place for snakes and scorpions which can be very dangerous to our children and pets.

It takes leaves about six months to decompose fully, but we don’t want to kill grass while we wait, so we leave them undisturbed for around four months so they can start to deteriorate and disintegrate. Then we rake up the bulk of the leaves, but we don’t rake the yard clean. A thin layer is left to do its job. A big portion of the leaves go to the squash and raised beds and the chickens finish the job of turning them into the soil. The rest to the burn pile. The ashes from the burn are kept for the chickens and as an amendment when needed.

So about 10 gator loads and a little over an hour later, we were done. As you can see below, we had a lot of help!