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As we begin to sense warmer weather on the way, many of us decide it\u2019s time to “get out there and clean up the leaves,” the ones that didn\u2019t get raked up last fall. We may have left them there because the weather turned blustery and dampened our energies, or maybe we learned that a cover of leaves keeps down weeds in the garden and offers the soil some beneficial nutrients, which is true. But there\u2019s another reason that leaving the leaves \u2013 as much as possible \u2013 is environmentally important.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the bees and other pollinators<\/strong><\/p>\n Some bees do their over-wintering a few inches below soil surface, and a layer of leaves affords them an extra layer of needed protection. But it\u2019s not just bees that are pollinators; the category includes butterflies and moths that spend the colder months as an egg, a caterpillar, a chrysalis, or a full-grown adult. Those species that don\u2019t use the leaf cover simply for protection may lay their eggs on the leaves or disguise their cocoons or chrysalises to blend in with what nature intends to give them for the job \u2013 our old, brown, and gray leaves.<\/p>\n If you must remove leaves:<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember, Nature\u2019s idea of what constitutes a healthy, beautiful yard is different than ours.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we begin to sense warmer weather on the way, many of us decide it\u2019s time to \u201cget out there and clean up the leaves,\u201d the ones that didn\u2019t get raked up last fall…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n