This is part of a series with Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to toxic-free, ecological gardening, on how you can be more sustainable in your landscapes at home.
Nature is resourceful. It doesn’t pay for mulch or fertilizer or hire a team to blow away leaves. It doesn’t bag up grass clippings and send them to the landfill. And it doesn’t chop down dead trees or branches and truck them away. It makes everything it needs and uses everything it makes. Leaves feed insects and other wildlife. Insects feed birds. Dead leaves and trees feed the soil. And the soil feeds the plant. And on and on it goes.
Nothing is “waste,” and nothing goes to waste. It’s a perfect cycle—one that has worked for millennia. When caring for your yard ask yourself: What Would Nature Do (WWND)? And then follow its lead. One simple way to do this is to “close the loop,” says Edwina von Gal, founder of Perfect Earth Project. “Let nothing leave your property and bring nothing in—except for plants.” You’ll save money, reduce fossil fuel use, provide essential habitat for biodiversity, support the ecosystem the way nature intended, and have fun. Here are five easy ways to close the loop.
1. Mulch-mow your lawn.
Above: Want to be really planet-friendly? Learn how to scythe your lawn; just remember to leave the clippings where they land. Photograph by Jim Powell, from Trend Alert: Mowing the Lawn With a Scythe.
Grass clippings are free food for your lawn. Use a mulching mower or add a mulching kit to your existing mower. The mulcher finely chops the clippings, so they decompose quickly, feeding your lawn. No mess. No bags. No need for fertilizer.
2. Grow green mulch.
Above: For a soft landing to be successful, it’s important that the tree and the plants growing beneath it be native. At garden designer Leslie Needham’s house, underplantings of yellow golden groundsel (Packera aurea), blue woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and white cultivar P. divarciata ‘May Breeze’, create a soft landing around a native dogwood (Cornus florida). Photograph courtesy of Leslie Needham Design, from Ideas to Steal: 8 Tips from Leslie Needham on Designing Gardens that ‘Blur the Edges’.
Why buy imported mulch when you can grow a living mulch? Plant a soft landing in the area beneath a native tree’s drip line with a diverse mix of native plants. Choose a selection of shallow-rooted native plants suited to your locale, such as violets and wild geranium in the Northeast, and carefully dig them in, being mindful not to damage the tree’s roots. Plugs are a great option since they’re small. (Learn more about soft landings in our interview with Heather Holm and Leslie Pilgrim, who coined the phrase.)
3. Leave the leaves.
Above: Fallen leaves around a tree are much better than a tree volcano of store-bought mulch. Photograph by Joy Yagid, from Ask the Expert: Doug Tallamy Explains Why (and How to) Leave the Leaves.
Leaving the leaves is a simple thing to do to help with the biodiversity crisis. Dried leaves not only feed the soil, but they also provide vital habitat for the insects who overwinter on them. On a recent episode of the Xerces podcast Bug Banter, entomologist Max Ferlauto of the Maryland Natural Heritage Program cited a recent study that found “when you remove the leaves, you reduce your butterfly and moth emergence by about 45 percent. And you reduce your spider population by about 56 percent, and your beetle population by about 25 percent.” That said, it’s okay to sweep away any that have collected on paths and driveways and divert them to areas under shrubs and trees or put them in the compost.
4. Keep deadwood standing.
Above: A simple habitat pile tucked away in the meadow at Chanticleer. Horticulturalist Chris Fehlhaber built the stack around a center post. As the stack settles, gaps form around the post. “Bumblebees use this gap to gain access to the interior of the stack, which is likely relatively well-sheltered and dry, to make their nests,” he says. Photograph by Melissa Ozawa, from Habitat Piles: Turning Garden Debris Into Shelter and Sculpture.
Whether you call them snags or tree sculptures, dead trees are crucial to the ecosystem. According to the National Wildlife Federation, they provide habitat for a thousand species of wildlife in the U.S., including woodpeckers, bats, and squirrels. As the tree decays, insects, fungi, lichen, and moss move in, offering a feast for wildlife. As Smithsonian magazine reports, “Estimates suggest that one third of insect species in a forest rely on deadwood in some way—and these insects are food for other invertebrates, as well as birds and bats.”
Above: Wood “pavers” on Edwina von Gal’s property. She digs about three to four inches deep, embeds the tree slice into the ground, and then fills in the area around them. Photograph by Melissa Ozawa.
If you’re concerned about safety, remove any branches that pose a risk. Cut up logs and stack them into wood piles. Or slice 3- to 4-inch-thick rounds to create “tree cookies” to form into pathways, like von Gal does on her property. Tree cookies are especially good in high traffic areas or in places that have struggled to sustain grass or moss.
For smaller branches and other plant debris, craft habitat stacks or weave “dead hedges” out of branches. These areas offer shelter for small birds and other critters, protecting them from predators like hawks. (To see more examples of habitat stacks, read our story).
5. Make compost.
Above: Need a tutorial on all the different types of composters on the market? See Backyard Composters, Explained: The Good, the Hot, and the Wormy.
In a designated bin or a pile in your yard, add a mix of green materials (vegetable scraps and fresh garden cuttings) and brown matter (dried leaves, twigs, wood chips, and leftover soil). Each time you add green material to your compost heap, throw in some brown material to keep the pile fresh. If it starts to smell bad, add more “brown” bits. Turn the pile to speed up the process or simply let it be, to decompose gradually. You’ll know your compost is ready when it looks dark and crumbly.
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