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Previous Articles
April 27, 2006
Crazy Clematis
May 04, 2006
Ornamental Grasses
May 11, 2006
Perennials
May 18, 2006
Herbs
May 25, 2006
Hummingbird Garden
Party
June 1, 2006
Gardening with Kids
June 8, 2006
Wildflower Week
June 15th
Shade Garden
June 29
Thumbs,
Feathers, Fruit
July 6, 2006
Reading Plants
July 13th
Back to the Oregon
Trail
July 20th
Theatre West Garden
Walk
July 27th
Notes from the Garden Walk
August 4th
Cereal Killers
August 10th
Grass Hedges
August 17th
Xeriscape
Refresher Course
August 24th
Fall is for
Planting
August 31st
Tree Roots at the
Old Pen
September 7th
Recipe for Enjoying
Autumn Landscapes
September 14th
On the Road to Casper
September 15th
Fall is in the Air
October 5th
Seeing Red
Coming Soon
A Prairie Garden Journal
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Other homeowners dread
the chore of cleaning up leaves, waiting as long as
possible to begin. And when the more compulsive
neighbor complains, these procrastinators point to a
few leaves still clinging to the branches of their
trees, as if to say, “No use cleaning up until the
mess making is done!”
Nature is not a fastidious
housekeeper. And for good reason. From tropical
rain forests to arctic tundra, the recurring death
of plant tissues and the recycling of those tissues
back into life-giving soil elements by complex
ecosystems of animals, insects, fungi, and bacteria
is an essential aspect of the earth’s plant life.
Scientists were surprised to discover that the most
complex plant ecosystems on earth—the tropical rain
forests—grow in relatively thin and infertile
soils. What allows a lush rainforest to grow on
almost no soil is the rapid rate at which these
ecosystems compost the steady stream of plant debris
which fall from the forest canopy. Were the
average American homeowner to move into the
rainforest and begin bagging up the fallen leaves,
his backyard rainforest would likely be reduced to a
Sahara Desert-like sand dune within a matter of
years.
The continually warm, moist tropical conditions
create an almost perfect environment for the insects
and microorganisms which perform the “composting”
process on the rainforest floor. The rainforest
floor is so efficient that most plant debris is
completely converted back into its basic chemical
elements within a matter of weeks. Rainforests are
completely dependent upon this continual stream of
recycled organic elements. At first glance that
makes the rainforest very fragile ecosystems. But
in reality, the “composting” or element recycling
process is such an inherent part of life on earth
that, left to themselves, the rainforests are as
durable and resilient as any of the earth’s regional
ecosystems.In the great forests and
prairies of the earth’s middle latitudes, the
recycling of plant debris is no less crucial to the
health of forest and prairie ecosystems. |
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The annual arrival of winter
weather causes a large seasonal shedding of plant
debris and also significantly slows the process by
which that debris is recycled to a period months and
years rather than weeks. But the limitations of
winter weather and unpredictable rainfall at these
latitudes also limits the number, size, and
diversity of plants which are able to grow in these
forest and prairie ecosystems at any given time.
The combination of these factors in the seasonal
climates of the middle latitudes allows the forest
and prairie ecosystems which grow there to
accumulate vast soil “banks” of the organic soil
elements. That’s why the great agricultural regions
of the world are found in these middle latitudes.
Which brings us back to the
neighborhood dispute about raking up leaves.
Community standards may come down solidly on the
side of the fastidious homeowner—anyone who doesn’t
think so has never received a letter from the local
code enforcement officer. But nature (for whatever
consolation this is) comes down squarely on the side
of the procrastinating neighbor who waits for the
last leaf falls before even thinking about raking up
leaves—perhaps even waiting until spring.
The compromise between these
two differing approaches to maintaining one’s home
landscape can be found in at least understanding
that the layer of leaves, stems, and garden debris
produced by the arrival of fall weather is more than
just an annoying interruption of our otherwise tidy
gardening lives. In nature’s great cycle of life,
those unsightly leaves are next year’s flowers, and
tomatoes, and butterflies, and robins. If community
sensibilities require that we rake up autumn’s
leaves, then nature requires that we bring that
debris back into our gardens and landscapes next
spring, or perhaps even yet this fall, as compost
and mulch.
As for me, well there’s still
more than a few leaves clinging to the branches of
my trees.
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