Since I’ve been writing about making use of what nature gives us to help the ecological life cycle along, consider using leaves that fall on the lawn as a mulch or compost this year. If you only have a few leaves, run the mower over them to chop them up a little finer and leave them on the lawn where they will add to the organic matter in the soil.

If you have enough leave to where you can’t see the grass through the leaves, rake them up and use them for mulch in the garden. I like to use a blower/vac to suck them up, chop them up and then spread them over my vegetable garden to keep the winter weeds out of the beds until I’m ready to plant in the spring.

If you have large areas of planted trees and shrubs, you may want to simple rake them over into those areas and spread them out evenly. There are plenty of beneficial insects that overwinter in the leaf litter under trees and shrubs. I’m sure they will be thankful for the extra bedding this winter.