• Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
ASHEVILLE GREENWORKS
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees

An Autumn Song: Love your Leaves

9/27/2021

 
Picture

Autumn Song

In the deep fall

don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
 
of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
 
~ Mary Oliver
​

Picture
Let the leaves touch the earth this year by choosing to leave them on your lawns and yards. Fall is the perfect time to start composting. Read below to find out why!

In fall, leaves from deciduous trees coat the ground. This layer of organic matter represents an opportunity to build your garden’s soil, protect your lawn during the colder months, and create habitat for pollinators. In order to take full advantage of the leaves in your yard, try leaf composting. 

The Benefits of Leaf Compost

As leaves decompose, they form a beneficial soil amendment which can increase the health of your garden or lawn in a number of ways. 

  1. Leaf compost increases soil porosity, which means more room for water and air to flow around plants’ roots. 
  2. Compost also raises the soil’s fertility by adding nutrients like carbon and nitrogen.
  3. The dark, rich, organic matter left by the decomposition of leaves retains moisture, loosens compacted earth, and increases the particle size of your garden soil.
  4. Leaf compost can be used as a mulch or top dressing to repel weeds from your garden.
 
​

Composting leaves isn’t just good for your garden; this single act benefits the whole Asheville community. 

​


When residents of the City of Asheville bag their leaves and place them on the roadside, the city expends resources collecting and processing these leaves. This means taxpayer money must be allocated to removing a beneficial resource, which could enhance many backyards instead of ending up at an industrial composting site. The collection, transportation, and processing of leaf compost uses fossil fuels, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. 


Leaves bagged up and placed by the road may end up tipping into storm drains, where they slow or stop the flow of water. By clogging neighborhood storm drains, these leaves can lead to roadside flooding. When the leaves do pass through the drains, they enter nearby streams. Huge amounts of leaves pour into the waterway from neighborhood storm drains. This leads to eutrophication: an overload of nutrients in the water that causes oxygen depletion and, in extreme cases, large-scale fish kills or algae blooms.  


​Remember: If you must bag your leaves for curbside pickup, use paper bags! Using paper bags smooths out the whole composting process because paper bags are compostable, just like leaves. 

How to Compost Leaves

Simple leaf composting takes less work than creating a traditional compost. 

In traditional compost, you fill a bin with 3 parts brown material to 1 part green material. Brown material is primarily Carbon; it’s the building block of life on earth. The green material (ex. kitchen scraps and yard trimmings) contributes Nitrogen to the compost mix. Nitrogen-rich “greens” have a habit of getting stinky and attracting pests when not properly mixed with Carbon-rich “browns.” If you already have a compost pile going, fallen leaves are a valuable “brown” material used to balance the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen. Composting isn’t hard, but leaf composting is even easier.

Just add leaves. 

  1. Pile your leaves in a corner of the yard for an easy, out-of-the-way option. Thanks to natural decomposing microbes, you can rake your leaves into a pile and forget about them. Once the winter is over, the once large pile will be a small mound of nutrient-rich humus.
  2. Construct a bin using wire mesh or wood for more control. If you like a tidier look, try a bin. It’s best to stir the leaves once a month or so in order to promote aeration, which helps microbes to decompose the material. A basic compost bin is 3 square feet, large enough to hold moisture and heat, but not so large as to be unmanageable.
  3. Leave the leaves where they fall. This third option offers pollinators a safe place to overwinter and can help protect your lawn from extreme cold. You can also use a mower to chop up leaves. These leaf bits are more easily decomposed and will let more sunlight through to your lawn. Keep in mind, leaf bits won’t protect pollinators nearly as well as whole leaves.
`````    
Picture
Leaf composting couldn’t be simpler, but the benefits are great. You’ll save streams  eutrophication, give pollinators habitat, build healthy soil in your own garden, and avoid burning unnecessary fossil fuels. Asheville GreenWorks provides easy-to-assemble compost bins to house your leaves this fall. Reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, or through our website to learn more about composting in your backyard! 

Happy Fall! 



This article is written for the residents of the City of Asheville in partnership with the City of Asheville.
​

Picture
Picture
Mary Lou Surgi
10/1/2021 02:36:36 pm

I'm just adding that those of us who love to compost leaves often drive around neighborhoods in the fall to pick up bags of leaves that were set out for collection. We are happy to save them from the landfill and take them home to our own compost heap!

Jim
10/11/2021 02:55:00 pm

So true! Did this yesterday. The yard owner was there, and I was able to confirm that the yard was pesticide/herbicide-free.


Comments are closed.

​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees