10/17/2026
🍂National Wildlife Federation has so many great tips for Leaving the Leaves this month. Here are some of our favorites. 🍂
1️⃣ If you have sidewalks, driveways, or turfgrass lawn, rake the leaves from these areas and use them elsewhere in your garden. A light scattering of leaves is fine, but allowing a thick layer of leaves to blanket the turfgrass will smother lawn and keeping leaves on sidewalks and driveways can present hazards while also making your gardening choice look messy rather than intentional.
2️⃣ Add to garden beds for extra benefits to the soil. Placing a layer of fallen leaves as mulch in your garden beds not only benefits overwintering wildlife, but it can also help suppress weeds and return important nutrients to the soil for your garden plants!
3️⃣ Pile up extra leaves and turn them into leaf mulch. If you’ve already added leaves to your garden beds and still have more, you can pile them up in a corner of your garden. This pile will break down into leaf mulch, an incredible compost for your garden that can be used in the coming seasons!
4️⃣ Make your leaf layer 3-5 inches thick. Aim to mimic the depth of the naturally occurring leaf layer to provide optimum benefit for wildlife without making it too deep. This layer will naturally compress down and decompose over time.
More tips here:https://www.nwf.org/-/media/Documents/PDFs/Garden-for-Wildlife/Tip-Sheets/How-to-Leave-the-Leaves.pdf
