this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024

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445

They're called leaves for a reason. (mander.xyz)

submitted 14 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 minutes ago

Brings nutrients into your soil so you have a healthier lawn

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 hours ago

I'll (electrically) blow leaves off of walkways, but the vast majority of them stay put. Fuck a fucking lawn.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure if I didn't do any yard work by May I'd have the city repossessing my home.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 hours ago

Start a movement to stop the city from forcing people to cut their yards. It creates smog, kills the insects we need for food, damages the native plants, wastes money, and looks ugly. Natural yards are awesome.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I've decided to leave the leaves on my yard and I swear my neighbors are mowing and leaf blowing twice as much just to spite me.

IDGAF. I'd rather have fireflies and bumblebees than human neighbors

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Fireflies were spectacular this year.

In the front yard I let the wind take whatever leaves it takes. In the back I rake a path to the gates. Those leaves get put in a large open bin along my fence which makes nice soil in a year of so. Everything else is as nature intended.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I’m hoping I can stem the collapse. I saw three fireflies this past summer. Which is a 3x improvement over the summer before that.

But coming from a place where I could walk through the woods on a dark night just by the light of fireflies it hurts my soul to be somewhere so sterile.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

We don't get fireflies where I am, and one of my brothers took his kids on a trip to the Statesian South, his motivation being so they could see fireflies before they go extinct. I kind of wish I'd tagged along.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 hours ago

And then they complain that their fruit garden isn't working.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Too bad HOAs are far more concerned with making sure everything looks plain and perfect to the 70 year old humans walking on the street rather than giving any craps about wildlife.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 hours ago

In a previous house I rented, the HOA ladies would drive around the neighborhood roughly 3 times a week. There were less than 200 homes in the whole subdivision. Even if you walked slowly, it would only take an hour to walk the whole thing, but instead they drove.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 12 hours ago

Don't worry, they're also hostile to humans under the age of 70

[–] [email protected] 22 points 13 hours ago (8 children)

You think anybody is walking on the street in the US?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

You think otherwise?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not American but my understanding is that many of those "suburban" residential blocks have sidewalks and you can walk around withing the confinement of your block. However blocks are isolated from each other and you need a car to go somewhere else.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

My block of suburbia growing up only had a sidewalk for the last 2 houses on it, everyone else didn't get one

So that's nice

[–] [email protected] -5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Hah, I forgot that there are actually lots of suburban places that have no sidewalks. I was more talking about how no one walks and everyone drives, but it seems everyone interpreted that to mean specifically walking in the driving lanes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

America build the suburbs as a big fake playground where you can walk your dog.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago

Absolutely. There’s a lot in my neighborhood… And it’s annoying when there’s a perfectly good sidewalk right there.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

Plenty of them do. And I hate it. They need to be on the sidewalk, not the street.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago

Yeah, quite a few

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I don't view this as a "pick up the leaves or not" false choice. I leave the leaves in some areas and mow over/pick them up in others. They're literally free mulch and compost

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

If you leave them all in place they all turn into free mulch and compost anyway. And you avoid using the fossil fuels to power the mower you don't need in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I have a battery powered mower and utility has done a pretty good job of incorporating renewables into their mix

I also have some small spots where I want grass

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

That's probably the least efficient way to mulch that stuff, don't just leave it out like that

And you avoid using the fossil fuels to power the mower you don't need in the first place

Ah, should we all be using the push powered ones, then, cuz those are fucking terrible. Not having grass is nice for those who don't live where it's a legal requirement, but that's out for many people, and you do have to cut it or you'll get a different law visit instead

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Go to a farm, ask for stall muckings....free compost.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

You will want to be sure to sift them a little, as there will be a lot of stones in them, in my experience.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

until it snows, then it becomes a slip-n-slide for all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

our yard and sidewalks / pavement becomes slime slick if they're left around. I doubt there are many bees in my leaf piles, it's been raining for a month straight.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 12 hours ago

Just remember that month suggestions online are for certain geographic areas. You might need to move them earlier or later. (The best rules I have seen is when nights are above 50 F in North America)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 12 hours ago

In other words, leave nature alone and let it do the thing it designed itself to do

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

And now I'm even more glad that where I live they leave the leaves under the tree. Didn't know that bumblebees live under that leaves left under the tree. Now I wanna leave a commest about the cute bumblebees that live under the leaves that someone left under the tree.

P.S. sorry, couldn't hold myself, sorry:)

[+] [email protected] -29 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Colony collapse was due to fungicides being sprayed in the day. -Bees don't need extra pollen (they have plenty of food to spare which is why we have honey as a product), and they don't need people's lawns (pick the leaves up before winter).

Leaving leaves is just being an asshole neighbor making safe paths for vermin to get into houses, and reduce the value of neighboring properties.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Since HOAs were mentioned, I assume the previous comment was about the US (unless there are countries in the Old World where they are as prevalent, but I know of none). Domestic honey bees aren't native to the US, and many native bees are endangered for many different reasons. In the rest of the world as well, honey bees aren't the only bees, or the only pollinating insects, and each pollinator has their plants of predilections, some species of plants depend entirely on some species of insect, so insect biodiversity is very important. Protecting native bees in the Americas has particular stakes, because they're the most adept at pollinating the native plants which are the cornerstones of several ecosystems.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Please cite your sources.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Does his ass count as a source?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago

I think that counts as a secondary/#2 source?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 12 hours ago

You're not OP

[–] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

Lmfao

[–] [email protected] -2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Leaving leaves also kills the grass under them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

It most certainly does not. Source: have a tree, a lawn, and no interest in spending time raking leaves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

I've got two big sycamores in my front yard, and they both are currently dropping leaves the size of dinner plates in enough quantity to completely cover large portions of the yard. If I don't rake or mulch them, they will smother whatever ground cover that's underneath them. I know this because I tried leaving them one year and it took the next three years to get all the mud pits left behind in the spring to fill back in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago

It really depends on how many leaves we're talking; a thin, evenly distributed layer? Yeah that's just mulch and is great. A thicker layer that turns slimy and dense? That grass is a goner. Area and species of leaves probably pays a big part I imagine. I have an area near a fence where the leaves piled up and were left a year and now there's no grass there, even a couple years later (there's a super embedded layer of decomposing leaves that's blocking everything else out even after removing the bulk of the leaves)

Of course, there's never room for nuance in these conversations.