Use Your Leaves as Mulch

Communicating with Nature

September 2026

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird
I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.”
GEORGE ELIOT

Rather than buy and haul weighty mulch that can attract termites, use your raked leaves as mulch. As I wrote in my blog post, Keeping Nature Wildly Beautiful, this adds a balance of nutrients and allows beneficial insects who live in fallen leaves to thrive. 

Autumn is also an ideal time to aerate compacted soil to restore its drainage and vitality. It’s best to use an aerator with hollow tines; solid tines can further compact your soil. In richly alive organic soil, aeration or oxygenation can sustain itself.  

Be sure to avoid carcinogenic and other costly carbon-releasing killing agents linked to deadly diseases and dysfunctions, and climate change. Regardless of how many pollinator flowers you plant, toxins will repel and kill essential pollinators and other wildlife. This includes the birds who eat disease-carrying mosquitoes. Further, toxins kill the healthy microorganisms in richly alive soil, and poison our air and water.

Similarly avoid synthetic fertilizers that contain killing agents, and that emit greenhouse gases from manufacture through application.

Instead, seed or over-seed your entire lawn or just areas that are weedy and bare. Buy safely organic uncoated seeds suited to your soil, climate and land use. Remember to select seed varieties native to your area.

Enjoy the tranquility of wildly beautiful organic parks in your own yard and community!  -AGGIE PERILLI