QUESTION
My husband and I were wondering about raking leaves at the cottage. Is it better to let them sit where they fall until spring? Should we rake them into the woods? Burn them? How long will they take to break down?

ANSWER

We guessed you already knew what the experts were going to say: Leaves are part of nature's recycling system and should remain where they can break down and enrich the soil. Of course, that doesn't mean they have to stay wherever the wind blows them, blocking pathways and gathering in unsightly tangles exactly where you don't want them. Raking leaves into the woods is an excellent idea, agrees Alan Watson, director of The Arboretum at the University of Guelph. "There are lots of good nutrients in those leaves," he says, "that can do the most good at the bases of the trees they came from." You can also throw them onto flower beds if you have any, and tuck them away into shrubby areas.

Burning them, besides releasing particulate matter into the air that adds to pollution, is a sad waste of those nutrients, and of the leaves' insulation value. On the ground, they're a winter blanket that protects soil, young plants, seeds, insects, and small animals (who also hide from predators there).

If earthworms are abundant in your soil, decomposition will be faster, Watson says, with one autumn's leaves gone by the following August. Where there are few worms, leaves are still broken down by smaller organisms, but could last several years, as they do in deep woods where many years' worth of leaves make the ground soft and springy underfoot.

* Published in the September/October 2005 issue of Cottage Life