Some leaves are meant to settle where they fall — and some lessons are meant to be learned slowly. In the garden, letting go can be just as important as tidying up.
Our desire to tidy our lives by letting go of what holds us back should not be synonymous with what we do in our garden at this time of year. Fall is more of a preparation for winter, not a rewind of making up for the time lost in summer. Leave the garden alone. Spring will be here soon enough for tidying the garden. Conserve your energy now and enjoy the cooler nights and shorter days. Let go and follow the cue of nature.
Leaves are Falling
One of my fondest memories as a child was running around on the golf course near my home and running to catch a leaf before it hit the ground. I caught one time out of every forty. But I did it year after year.
At this time of year where things are letting go…the leaves, the warm days and the daylight to name a few, it can be hard to let the yard go too. We tend to metaphorically feel that the leaves are letting go to cue us into letting go of habits that we don’t like or that we need manage the mess. Do we need to keep the yard looking as it did in summer… vibrant and stunning…summer BBQ ready? Or do we?
Our desire to tidy our lives by letting go of what holds us back should not be synonymous with what we do in our garden.
We may begin to feel that sense of urgency that those cold days are coming, and we need to spend as much time in the garden as we can cleaning up and cutting things back. It is as if we psychologically feel we are repelled by the cold and will not be able to work in the garden past December 1. We do have coats and jackets though do we not? It is as if this desire to remove every leaf before it settles to the ground is as top of mind as slapping pumpkin spice on everything and calling it “cozy”. I urge you not to. You can catch them all you want to. But do leave them alone. The leaves have their place, and tons of wildlife species rely on them over the winter to keep them safe until they re-emerge in spring.
Some leaves are meant to settle where they fall — and some lessons are meant to be learned slowly. In the garden, letting go can be just as important as tidying up.
Little lollipops in my yard for the birds
I encourage you to resist that need for cutting and pruning. Stems with seed heads and fallen leaves are lifelines, not a fallen entity that needs to be immediately picked back up and put into place. They are in their place…as food for wildlife. (As an added bonus, wait until you see a coneflower seed head encased in frost in a few months.)
Eventually the seed heads will have fulfilled their purpose as a lifeline and then, later on, a few birds will flock to the berry producers like cranberry bush viburnum, winterberry holly, inkberry holly, chokeberry and elderberry. Even the rather plain pioneer Eastern red cedar produces irresistible berries for Eastern bluebirds and cedar waxwings.
Winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) berries
On a day that honors our national wildlife, here’s some helpful tips for attracting our feathered friends to your garden. Bird seed you buy at the store is one way, certainly! But not all birds eat seeds, and birds have been foraging in the wild much longer than they have been coming to bird feeders.
Attracting songbirds to your yard and making your outdoor space a wildlife-friendly haven should definitely include rudbeckia and echinacea species which are bird magnets at this time of year. (Late summer into fall). The most important part is to leave the seed head standing. That’s where they get the goodies. Remember: spring is the time in your yard for cleanup, not the fall. Also, don’t forget to add a water source. Birds need water too. Additionally, if you live in an area that has hummingbirds, you can attract them to your yard with several types of native plants. One of their favorite plants in my neck of the woods is coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, and cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis.
There are other ways to attract birds throughout the year, beyond just seed heads perched atop stems like lollipops. Keep in mind too, that some birds may be on their way—to or from—in migration and find rest stops along their journey to fuel up. To help them along, a garden with multiple tiers will help them the most…think about the big trees that have canopies, all the way down to lower growing shrubs and stockier trees, and finally, the plants and flowers. Birds rarely eat “out in the open” and seek shelter in the form of dense foliage to evade predators and take those much needed rests. No time to wait for trees to grow? No problem! (Though Eastern white pine trees are super fast growers!)
Garden in Layers
There are some stockier shrub type plants that birds like just as well as the larger canopies of oaks or sycamores. The more important element is layers: places to hide. Places to forage. Places to nest. Places to grab some water. All important elements in making your place bird friendly yard! A nest box is also a nice addition if you can. Some birds use boxes (called a cavity nest) which other birds nest in a dense shrub or tree, called a cup nest.
On National Wildlife Day, here’s how to help birds in your garden! 🌿
Leave seed heads standing — that’s where they get their goodies. Fall cleanup can wait until spring.
Create layers: big trees → shrubs → flowers. Birds need shelter and rest stops, especially during migration.
Later in the season, berries from cranberry bush viburnum, winterberry, inkberry, chokeberry, elderberry, and Eastern red cedar will feed them through winter.
Make your yard a haven for wildlife — it’s easier than you think! 🐦✨
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