Autumn foliage: do not leave to clean

Ten years ago, remember? – disputes were noisy in the capital: is it necessary or not to remove the autumn foliage? Where should the comma be placed in the phrase “you can’t clean it up”? Let’s try to figure it out.

On the one hand, it seems – to leave by all means! But how? After all, our northern soils are fertile precisely due to autumn foliage. It covers the ground with a carpet, during the winter it melts under the snow, and in the spring it enters the soil with thaw. In a word, it enriches it with various substances that the leaves have accumulated during the growing season. The verdict is clear – leave?

Leaves accumulated … accumulated – what?

It’s one thing if a tree grows in a forest or in a natural area. And it’s completely different if it’s on the street, where cars constantly drive. Their exhausts accumulate in the leaves, fall to the ground with them in autumn. Cigarette butts and chewing gum fly here. Small plastic is lost in piles of foliage on lawns. In a word, foliage from trees growing in yards and along roads does not enrich the soil, but, on the contrary, pollutes it.

Add to this that after rain, the layer of leaves on the pavement becomes slippery and life-threatening. In addition, the foliage perfectly clogs storm sewers and causes flooding during rains.

Another moment. Trees sometimes get sick. Many insect pests, as well as fungi, use fallen leaves as a winter apartment – they are warm and soft there. Meanwhile, in urban conditions there is not enough wood orderlies – animals that feed on pests. So, a person should take care of the trees.

Therefore, in yards and especially along roads, lawns should be free of leaves. Remove, don’t leave!

That’s what they do. On lawns, leaves are raked in heaps with soft fan rakes, put in large bags and taken away for disposal. Vacuum cleaners and blowers are used in open spaces. During intensive leaf fall, leaves can be harvested two to four times a day.

But in specially protected natural areas the situation is different, and the comma should be in a different place. You can’t take it away, you can’t leave it! The foliage here is clean, so it should lie like a solid carpet under the trees. In winter it will warm them, and in spring it will nourish them.

In the city, these operations will be performed by a person instead of foliage.

Yana Mayevskaya.

Photo by Alexander Avilov / Moskva Agency