Those beautiful autumn leaves are also a highly valuable natural resource once they hit the ground. They naturally break down to make healthier lawns and healthier soil; and they are essential winter habitat for birds, bees, butterfly and moth caterpillars, and other wildlife. Disposing of leaves is not only a lot of work — often involving extremely polluting and loud leaf blowers — it's also destructive to our ecosystem.

Thankfully, more and more property owners are choosing to leave the leaves. Here's how:

🍁 Leave them where they naturally fall.

🍁 Rake leaves on your lawn into garden beds, around perennials and shrubs, and under the drip line of trees as free, insulating, and nourishing mulch.

🍁 Shrink your lawn and create a new or expanded planting bed: Pile the leaves in an area where you want to kill grass to make space for more native plants — with no backbreaking grass removal involved!

🍁 Create a leaf pile in an out-of-the-way spot for a supply of free mulch or compost material for next spring & summer.

🍁 Break out the rakes and talk to your landscapers about steps they can take right now that will give you a healthier yard, reduce noise and particulate pollution, and protect landscape workers.

🍁 As a last resort, mulch leaves on the lawn by mowing over them so they can break down and enrich the soil — keeping in mind that this will kill bees, fireflies, and butterflies that are already among those leaves, getting ready to overwinter.

Check out these sustainable tips for your fall decor.

Asters are a superb native alternative to mums. And they return every year! There are many varieties to brighten your fall landscape and attract pollinators — allowing you to choose based on color and appearance, bloom period, and light requirements.

Once established, their deep roots mean less watering, and they help with erosion control. In winter, asters provide food and habitat for birds and small animals that feast on the seeds, and beneficial insects take shelter in the dried stalks.

If you love seeing fireflies, a.k.a lightning bugs (who doesn't?), be aware that right now the larva for next summer's fireflies are among the fallen leaves in our yards, where they will overwinter if you let them.

Leaving the leaves allows them to complete their life cycle.

Discarding leaves trashes not only fireflies, but also overwintering bees, butterfly caterpillars, and moth caterpillars that are a vital food source for birds.