Coordinator’s Column 

Hello Gardeners, 

  This winter has been milder in the valley than last winter. You may be thinking, “Spring has sprung!” like the groundhogs have said. That gardening itch may be starting to tickle you into getting outside and prepping your beds! But you may want to hold off for a little bit longer for more consistent warm weather.  

We hear the phrase “Leave the leaves” in the fall, but what does it mean for us gardeners in the spring? The purpose of leaving our leaves in garden beds is to provide habitat for our gardens’ insect friends to survive the winter months. Tall stalks from flowers are also used as overwintering habitat for insects. Many native beneficial insects need these to remain in gardens to help them maintain healthy population levels. If we remove our leaves and tall stems too early into spring, we are removing some of these insects that haven’t had a chance to emerge into the warm weather, thus depriving our gardens of their benefits.  

When is it late enough to remove your garden leaves? In a perfect world for the beneficial insects, the leaves would be able to stay year-round; however, that is not realistic for many gardens. Dried leaves close to houses or trapped under shrubs could be tinder for summer fires. Wait as long as you can to let the most insects develop and emerge from overwintering. This could be well into April or even into the beginning of May! 

Leaving the leaves is great for our insect friends but there are some circumstances where removing the leaves in fall could be a good idea. Orchards and vineyards often face disease issues spread by their fallen leaves. When the spring rains come, they splash up fungal spores onto the newly budding leaves. Removing leaves in your orchards and vineyards can help prevent diseases spreading this way. If you want to put those leaves to good use, you can add them to an ornamental garden bed away from your crop area. 

Let us leave the leaves for a little length longer!