October is Leave the Leaves Month, which is a perfect time to adopt some wildlife-friendly fall gardening practices.
Learn how to use fallen leaves in your garden.
There are many ways to “leave the leaves" including using them as mulch, composting them, and more!
Get 10% off your certification and sign!
Use code FALL10 for 10% off your certification fee and a sign purchase this October.
New to all this? It's time to learn to love leaves!
Learn about the 5 major benefits that come from leaving the leaves.
Where should fallen leaves stay?
In your garden beds
Under native trees
In the compost
Fallen leaves don't need to stay exactly where they land to have wildlife benefits. In fact, moving leaves off of your lawn and pathways is recommended.
About Leave the Leaves Month
In one year alone, Americans disposed of over 35 million tons of yard waste!
While we commonly call it yard "waste", it's actually incredibly valuable habitat for wildlife and nutrients for plants. Making the shift to use your fallen leaves in your garden rather than throwing it out can be a simple change with lots of benefits.
Did you know
The fallen leaf layer isn't dead, it’s full of life! Wildlife like butterflies, bumble bees, fireflies, and salamanders depend on the leaf layer.
When you throw out your leaves in a yard waste bag, you could be throwing away up to half of your springtime butterflies!
Our National Wildlife Survey found most people are open to Leaving Leaves to Benefit Wildlife.
To raise awareness, we have launched National Wildlife Federation's Leave the Leaves Month. This is a terrific time to keep active in your garden to make it even better for the multitude of wildlife species that need fallen leaves and other organic yard debris as habitat.
