Dealing with Dead Tree Stuff

The best fertilizer for trees are their own dead leaves, and the layers of mulch and compost they turn into. There's a movement for letting leaves remain on the lawn, and I heartily agree. Nothing better than a rich forest floor.

It amazes me when people bag up these wonderful assets and let the city remove them. At least in my city they are composted. But I can't understand how the bare earth left behind looks better than the leaves did.

A caveat about tree leaves: be sure not to rake them in a pile heaped up around the trunk, sometimes called "volcano mulching." The base of the tree needs to be exposed for the health of the tree: for oxygen and to avoid rot. Let the leaves stay where they fall, or rake them away from the tree into a ring, or whatever shape appeals to you. Leaf art!

As with chop and drop, however, it's best to remove diseased leaves. My ash tree gets some kind of disease, probably anthracnose, every year, so I send most of those leaves to the compost cart.

To some, my yard may look unkempt in winter. But if it works for my little ecosystem, it works for me.