Leave the leaves – the new, easy way to deal with autumn gardens
Leave the leaves is the new gardening mantra.
It appeals to me more than getting out a leaf blower or a rake,then bagging up leaves and finding somewhere to store them. They will break down into valuable leaf mould but they take their time – sometimes it is several years before you will get the benefit. So you’ll be looking at those bags for a long time.
And taking leaves to the local recycling centre in a car is just a waste of time and resources.
Raking leaves was the most boring task of my childhood. My mother ushered us all out for hours of back-breaking tedium.
Should you rake or leave the leaves?
Today’s ‘leave the leaves’ campaign on social media suggests that much of this work was unnecessary.
Others suggest, however, that leaving the leaves could damage your garden or even your health.
Having left leaves on my own borders for 15+ years with no ill-effects, I’ve done some more research to see where we can leave the leaves and where they would be better swept up.
This is my central garden bed. I have never cleared any leaves away. Most of them rot down by the spring, although a few are blown onto the lawn on dry, windy days.
Can you leave the leaves on borders and garden beds?
You can leave leaves on most borders and garden beds without any problem. They will break down over the winter and by spring, you’ll hardly notice them.
As they break down, they’ll return nutrition to the soil.
Piles of leaves also offer habitats to hibernating insects and other wildlife. People have pointed out – correctly – that this includes slugs and snails. But it also includes slug and snail predators, such as hedgehogs, frogs, toads, slow-worms and ground beetles.
There are only two potential problems with leaving leaves on borders.
Firstly, some trees have very thick, big leaves that take a long time to break down. The leaves from my Magnolia grandiflora can cover smaller plants, such as Saxifrage ‘London Pride’. This would deprive them of light, so I do push them off (when I notice).
Secondly, if you leave leaves on paths or walkways, then they may become very slippy. So you can’t leave all the leaves.
The top photo is my central border in autumn 2022. The picture below it shows that the leaves have decomposed around 3 months later. I did see a few traces of leaf when I went really close up, but it wasn’t a problem. Since then I have always left the leaves on the borders. There has been no sign of any problem.
Should I cover my flowerbeds with leaves for the winter?
Some people also ask if they should add leaves to their borders. If I’m sweeping up a few leaves from the path, I often dump them at the back of a border.
And an increasing number of people are using garden leaves as mulch. They chop them up with a lawnmower, then spread them over borders.
Or they may do what I do and add piles of of whole leaves.
Either way, the leaves will break down more quickly if they’re left on the soil in a border, because the rain, sun and organisms in the soil will have more access to them.
And a layer of leaves protects the roots of plants. It’s like a warm winter blanket for your borders.
And it’s so much quicker than putting them into plastic bags and waiting for them to break down.
What happens if you leave a pile of leaves?
A pile of leaves on a border offers shelter to beneficial insects over winter. And it will break down to restore nutrition to the soil. So that’s free fertilizer for you!
Even better, a pile of leaves on bare soil takes light away from weed seeds. They’re less likely to germinate, so leaving the leaves helps stop weeds!
Are you wondering how long you can leave the leaves?
Forever! By spring, they will mainly have broken down and become part of your soil. The few scraps of leaves left will quickly be covered up by emerging perennials and bulbs.
So leaving the leaves really does save you work, both in the long-term and the short-term.
Do leaves blow around the garden if you leave them?
Many people see leaves blowing around a city street. They assume that leaves on borders will blow around the garden in the same way. But, mostly, they don’t.
I have tested this in my own garden over many winters. (When I find leaves on the lawn, I can tell where they’ve come from according to what type they are!)
Leaves don’t blow off garden beds if the leaves are at the back, right next to a wall or fence. The wind can’t get behind them to blow them around. I have even left quite a high pile of leaves at the back of a border and it has stayed there, gradually breaking down.
However, if your border is in the middle of the garden, it’s much easier for leaves to blow around the rest of the garden. If you have a wet autumn, they’ll mostly stay where they fall, but in dry, sunny weather you will get some leaves blowing around the lawn, paths or terraces. Not all the leaves will blow around, but some will.
Can leaves be used as mulch?
Yes, leaves make an excellent mulch for garden beds and borders.
There are two schools of thought. There are those who leave the leaves in borders or even sweep leaves from the lawn directly into borders.
And there are those who advise chopping the leaves up first.
Either is fine (except for those big thick leaves, which do need chopping up). The chopped-up leaves will decompose more quickly and are less likely to blow around.
In the spring your perennial plants will push up even through a thick layer of leaves. It’s a natural process.
This leaf mulch will help prevent weeds and will offer a habitat for wildlife, such as frogs, toads and lizards. The leaves will be broken down by micro-organisms in the soil, so your soil will be more fertile and have a better structure.
It’s always a good idea to mulch your flower borders before winter. It can be with leaves, well rotted garden manure, garden compost or other bought organic mulches.
Can leaves be added to the garden compost bin?
Yes. I’ve often added leaves to the garden compost bin. They don’t decompose as quickly as many garden clippings or raw fruit and veg, but that doesn’t have to matter.
Unless you’re sieving your garden compost to plant seeds, then having some partially composted element isn’t a problem. You can spread compost on the garden even if it’s not completely broken down.
However, one effective way of adding leaves to the compost is to mow the leaves on the lawn. Then throw the mixed bag of lawn clippings and chopped up leaves into the compost bin. It’s a perfect mix and will break down quickly.
I also speed it up by using a compost accelerator, such as Garotta.
Note that links to Amazon are affiliate, see disclosure.
Here’s a really easy guide to making your own garden compost.
You can also bag up leaves separately to make leaf mould/ leaf mold.
Leaf mold is a wonderfully nutritious mulch for your garden borders, but I have found that leaves seem to decompose much more slowly when they’re all bagged up together.
If you are going to bag up leaves, make sure they’re moist and tear air holes in the bags. They will take at least 1-2 years to break down.
Is it OK to leave leaves on lawns over winter?
This question causes a lot of arguments. Having looked at many of them, I can summarise it.
If you have lots of leaves, which lie in a thick layer on your lawn, then it will take them months to break down. In that time, your lawn will be deprived of sunlight. This will cause bare patches, especially if you have lots of the thicker, more leathery leaves.
So a thick layer of leaves does potentially damage your lawn.
However, if you only have a scattering of leaves over your lawn, then they will break down naturally, adding nutrition to the lawn.
Is it OK to leave leaves on the ground over winter?
This depends on what sort of ground. You shouldn’t leave fallen leaves on the ground anywhere you’re going to walk. Rotting leaves can get slippy, especially in icy weather.
You’ll need to clear away leaves that fall on concrete, brick, stone, other pavers or decking. In borders they can be reabsorbed into the earth. On hard surfaces, they will just rot away. And once again, there is the potential for people to slip on rotting, wet or icy leaves.
But if you walk through a wood or forest, you’ll see that nature leaves the leaves on the ground!
Is mowing the leaves better than raking?
The easiest way to deal with leaves on the lawn is to run a mower over them. Use a higher setting than you would in summer when the grass is growing strongly.
Many people ask if it’s bad for the lawn to mow the leaves rather than raking them. It’s absolutely fine for the lawn.
Some wildlife experts would rather you raked as you may shred leaves that tiny insects are using as habitat. However, if the leaves haven’t been on the lawn long, then they probably don’t have many insects in them.
Leaf blowers are more disruptive to wildlife than raking is. And it also uses more resources.
You can either throw the leaves and lawn clippings into the compost bin, throw it into the borders as a mulch or leave the chopped up leaves where they are on the lawn. They’ll break up more quickly than whole leaves will.
In the United States, where many of the lawn grasses aren’t native, this debate often veers off into the ‘lawns are bad’ argument.
It’s important to remember that there’s a difference between maintaining a non-native lawn in an area that isn’t suitable for lawns and having a mainly native lawn in the UK, where lawns use up relatively few resources and are both sustainable and wildlife-friendly.
You can find out more about an easy-care sustainable lawn here.
Fallen leaves are good for wildlife
Fallen leaves provide a habitat for a wide range of insects, frogs, toads, lizards, birds and other creatures. They shelter in the leaf litter over winter. Many of these benefit your garden by eating pests.
Some butterflies and moths over-winter in leaves as eggs, caterpillars or another stage of their life cycle. Bumblebees, too, need the insulation of fallen leaves in a quiet spot so that they can survive the winter.
Leaf litter is also a food source for a wide range of wildlife.
Most importantly the micro-organisms in the soil feed on the leaves, helping to break them down. This restores nutrition to the soil.
It’s free and it saves you effort!
Will the leaves cause bad moulds when they rot down?
Nature does not rake up leaves. It allows them to rot down, returning their nutrition to the soil.
Leaves rot down on a forest floor all year round. Forests and woods don’t smell bad. And people aren’t usually warned against walking in them because of ‘bad moulds.’
But if you search whether leaves cause bad moulds (molds) online, you will find hundreds of warnings, almost all from the United States, on the dangers.
Certainly moulds, funghi and fallen leaves are a factor in the autumn. These can trigger allergies, similar to those from pollen in summer. A few of these allergies and reactions can be severe.
But I find it odd that people are much more concerned about this in the United States than they are in the UK.
Are our fallen leaves less likely to cause allergies? Or do some countries worry more about leaves than others?
This may also be a volume issue. If you’ve got one or two trees of different kinds in your garden, then you won’t have a huge number of leaves at any one time. But if your property is surrounded by hundreds of the same deciduous trees all losing their leaves at once, then leaves will take longer to break down. The funghi that help break them down may be around longer.
It may also be worth noting that nature doesn’t sweep leaves into a big pile, so perhaps the balance of funghi and moulds may be different if leaves are in piles rather than simply left.
And not all ‘moulds’ are bad…
You’re certainly more likely to see funghi in autumn, when leaves are falling, but this doesn’t mean that leaving leaves causes them all. Or that they’re necessarily bad.
The Royal Horticultural Society says that most types of funghi are very good for gardens, helping plants to take up nutrients and dead matter to decompose.
Their latest Wildlife garden at RHS Wisley has areas where funghi have deliberately been planted.
There’s more from the RHS about adopting a more relaxed attitude to gardening in gardening for biodiversity.
There are a few damaging funghi, such as honey fungus and verticilium wilt. But sweeping up your leaves isn’t likely to make a lot of difference to them, one way or the other.
But, as with everything, I think it’s worth taking an individual approach to this. Is there any scientific research done in your area? Have you – or your family – personally experienced problems with leaves in the autumn?
What’s right for one person isn’t necessarily right for another, and if you do get health issues in autumn, it’s important to address them.
These funghi were deliberately introduced into the Wildlife Garden at RHS Wisley.
Are fallen leaves poisonous to dogs (or other pets)?
As I said in How to Puppy-Proof Your Garden, about 25% of any garden is likely to be toxic to both humans and pets. But most humans and pets don’t eat the plants.
Plant poisoning is relatively rare, but it is vital to keep a close eye on puppies, kittens and toddlers in a garden as a general safety measure. You never know what they’re going to put in their mouths or what other harm they could do to themselves.
The PDSA in the US (People’s Dispensary For Sick Animals) says that dead leaves are less likely to cause problems than green leaves.
There are a few plants which are very toxic, such as oleander or ricinus. I personally don’t grow either for that reason. But you will see oleander all over Europe, with lots of cats and dogs sunning themselves in front of the bushes.
I’d suggest asking your local vet if there are plants in your area that seem to cause problems with dogs or cats eating the leaves.
If you get a vague, general answer, that probably means the vet can’t remember specific cases (so there probably are few or none). If your vet has dealt with poisonings due to pets eating fallen leaves or specific plants, they’ll say so pretty clearly.
Can you leave leaves on paths?
Don’t leave the leaves on paths or places where you walk. It makes them slippy in rainy or icy weather.
But you don’t need to take the leaves very far. I just scoop mine up with leaf scoopers (I currently use these Straeme leaf grabbers) and deposit them in the nearest border (at the back, by the wall!)
Note that links to Amazon are affiliate, see disclosure.
Paths and terraces can be slippy if they are covered in wet or frozen leaves. A friend of mine says she has also slipped while walking on her lawn, so that is another factor to take into account.
You can see how I clear up leaves in this video.
Can leaves grow roots?
Leaves can’t regenerate or grow roots. You won’t find lots of tree seedlings popping up because you leave leaves on your borders or lawn.
Any other problems?
There is a wonderful Instagrammer Alexis Nicole who says in her video: ‘leave the leaves. They won’t break into your house and steal all your wine.’
How refreshing to find something we can all agree on. I think we can safely say that is true for wherever you live.
The ‘leave the leaves’ campaign is all part of gardening to support wildlife. It also saves time, effort (and even a little money) for the gardener, so this one is a ‘win/win!’
If you’re interested in cheaper, easier and more environmental approaches to gardening, see Eco-Friendly Gardening – What You Need To Know Before You Spend Money
And you will also enjoy 7 Lessons From Great Dixter – a Wildlife Friendly Garden That Looks Gorgeous.
If you are also like to have seedheads and grasses in your border over the winter, then see 20 Best Plants for Seedheads – Beauty, Wildlife and a Less Work Garden.
And it’s all part of the new, relaxed approach to gardening. Find other wildlife-friendly, less work tips in Gardening Lessons for Next Year: How 2025 Changed Your Garden Forever.
Fallen leaves have been called ‘leaf litter.’ But they’re not litter, they’re hugely valuable in so many ways.
But, as with everything, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ advice in gardening. If you’re reluctant that this will work for you, perhaps try leaving leaves on one border and see what happens.
Let me know how you find it.
More low-work ways of gardening
There’s been a great re-evaluation of gardening jobs over the last few years.
Start with How to Make Your Garden Easier To Manage This Year.
Discover tips from the low-work garden that has been voted one of the UK’s most beautiful gardens in The Low Maintenance Garden That Really Looks Fabulous.
And you’ll certainly save time on watering if you read Garden Watering Strategies – How to Save Time, Money and Effort, with tips from the RHS.
Even planning and planting can be easier with Jamie Butterworth’s 6 Easy Planting Tips for Beginners.
Pin to remember to leave the leaves
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I love this idea—such a simple shift, yet it makes so much sense. Leaving the leaves feels like working with nature instead of against it. It’s encouraging to know that something this easy can support wildlife, improve soil, and save time in the garden too.
Such a relatable topic! Gardens that are bigger than a courtyard but smaller than an acre have so much potential. With the right layout and plant choices, they can feel both spacious and cozy at the same time. Great ideas for making the most of a mid-sized garden!
Thank you!
I think most of us underestimate the benefit of leaving leaves, and the importance of leaving them whole not shredded or mown (but I take your comment on the extra tough. big ones). A two-year research study in residential gardens, published in March 2025, monitored the impacts of autumn leaf removal on insect and spider wildlife, and shows how and where you can make the most difference. Where leaves were kept almost 2,000 insects and spiders emerged from just 1 square metre – how incredible is that? Where leaves were removed the picture was very different;
Only half as many butterflies, moths and spiders came back.
Half of the species of butterflies and moths had disappeared.
The entire food chain was affected.
I found this reported here: https://awaytogarden.com/calculating-the-impact-of-leaving-the-leaves-with-max-ferlauto/
Thank you, that’s amazing information, very useful.
The Xerces Society is a charity for conservation of invertebrates that publish super-practical info too. 2 brilliant and related pieces from them; Save the Stems [for nesting bees] and Make Microhabitats – scroll to the bottom of their Leave the Leaves page for links, at https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves
Xerces Society is USA-based but it applies just as much elsewhere
Thank you, yes, I agree.
The roots of mature trees reach way down to pull up minerals and deposit them in their leaves. I have about a dozen mature deciduous trees on my one acre property and and keep all the leaves. I also have a lot of rhododendrons and was told by an expert that the best and only fertilizer they need is a mulch of oak leaves! However, I do remove the leaves from under my fruit trees, as they can harbour harmful insects.
I’m glad to hear it, though I do let my fruit tree leaves lie as well. But I’m not really an expert fruit tree grower.
My garden is bordered by four very large oak trees. The leaves stay on my borders and I think they improve the soil.
I’m sure they do!
Thank you for such a useful, informative article, full of practical and common-sensical advice. I always leave my leaves, and the ones that fall on my patio from my neighbours’ large hazelnut tree I sweep up and use as mulch or if they include nuts and catkins, I put them on the compost pile. Less work, more time for other things!
I agree. I was looking at the leaves outside in the road today, wondering if I had the energy to sweep them up and add them to my borders, then decided not to. But in theory they are a wonderful resource
I loved this discussion of leaves. Thank you!
thank you!
“Embracing ‘Leave the Leaves’ is not just a trend; it’s a sustainable approach to autumn gardening that benefits both your yard and the environment. By letting fallen leaves decompose naturally, you nourish the soil, support local wildlife, and reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers. Plus, it’s incredibly easy – a win-win for busy gardeners and Mother Nature alike!”
It is, I agree!
Thanks for a timely post! I have a small garden in south west UK, rather wet, plenty of leaves from both ours and neighbouring trees. As usual as soon as I start any tidying I find catapillars and other wildlife that I want to keep, so I only cleared the lawn and left most of the leaves in the borders, so I was very pleased to read your findings about it here. I recently heard radio 4 GQT talking about the need to protect the soil over winter with a mulch or similar, and I guess fallen leaves will do that job. I don’t know if they cause rot in some plants (ours is a very wet enclosed garden) but I’ll take the risk and see what happens in the spring!
I think they can cause rot if they’re large leaves and small plants, but I generally find that most of my plants survive. But that’s roughly what you’d expect if you did remove the leaves – some plants like the extra protection and would prefer their cosy leaf ‘blanket’ and others need a bit more air. So we can win either way, if we accept losing a few, hope it works for you.
For the last few years, I’ve left the leaves on my lawn and borders. I’ve had no (edible) apples on my apple tree for the last two years due to codling moth. I read that the caterpillars overwinter on rotting leaves under apple trees. Do you know if this is true? This year I’m raking up the leaves under my apple tree just in case!
I’ve had a look at this online and can’t find any trace of a recommendation to clear up leaves under an apple tree for this reason amongst the bigger sites. The RHS and Wikipedia both have quite a bit about the codling moth, and recommend pheromone traps in May. However, no-one specifically says that codling moth cocoons DONT overwinter in piles of leaves either. Nor is there any guidance as to how far away you might have to take the leaves so that the moth don’t just emerge in spring and fly back to the trees or how to dispose of them otherwise(burning could kill beneficial life, too). I’m sure some sites do recommend it though, and if piles of leaves create habitats for wildlife, then presumably the codling moth cocoon is part of that. Sorry to be inconclusive over this, but I’d suggest giving the leaves a good rake over at least, so as to expose any cocoons, and then going for the pheromone traps in May.
Thank you very much. I’ll investigate traps
I leave them on the beds, but usually blow the pathways clear. So 50/50 I guess, it’s just more manageable and a bit tidier.
I agree
I have a large garden with a few horse chestnut trees. I’ve heard that their leaves are not good for compost and shouldn’t be used for composting later on a vegetable garden. Is that true ?
This is one of those US vs UK issues – I see quite a lot of sites in the US recommending you don’t compost horse chestnut leaves, but the RHS in Britain list them as leaves you can compost, but best chopped up because they’re thicker and don’t break down as fast. There are sites that say that horse chestnut leaves have toxins that may affect vegetables if they are grown in soil where horse chestnut leaves are in the compost, but I can’t see any actual research confirming or measuring the actual effects of this.There’s a difference between a plant containing a toxin and whether that toxin has any practical effect, particularly once it’s broken down. So it’s up to you to decide – you could research ‘horse chestnut leaves toxins’ etc on Google and go deeper, if you want to be sure. I suspect that there are many vegetables grown near to horse chestnut trees where people aren’t aware of the issue.
I’m in western North Carolina mountains. Lots of gorgeous leaves and I keep ‘em all but do rake, blow, and drag them to various places, depending if they are oak or maple or poplar or dogwwod or redbud. This year I am widening some borders by putting piles 3feet deep atop cardboard to kill the grass underneath. Oak leaves go to the blueberries and azaleas and hydrangeas. We have lots of trees, being in the mountains. Yes, I do get a sniffly nose, but the air feels great and I’m 72 so the molds are evidently not killers.
Great idea to put the leaves in the most appropriate places!
We have 5 acres, 4 of them woods, near Asheville ,North Carolina, and I treasure every leaf one way or another. This year a particularly gorgeous carpet but yes they are backbreaking. We blow and rake and drag (tarps) the leaves near house. Oaks go to blueberries and azaleas, maples go atop cardboard where i am killing grass to widen borders. Afterwards, I go swimming to unkink. I am 72. Love your blog.
Wonderful, what a glorious number of trees and thank you.
I live in Indiana where we have lots of leaves and lots of mold, but I’ve never seen moldy leaves. People here don’t tend to complain about allergies in the fall. Here’s the advice from Purdue, our ag university: https://turf.purdue.edu/what-to-do-with-all-those-falling-leaves/#:~:text=Research%20results%20at%20Purdue,not%20increase%20thatch%20or%20disease.
Thank you – glad to know that Purdue agrees with us leaf-shredders (as opposed to leaf blowers).
I’m happy to leave most leaves around the plants but not on them. We have so many lovely foliage plants still going strong and even still trying to flower I hate to see them marred by soggy old rotting leaves clinging to them.
Yes, I think that’s a good point.
We got rid of a lot of poor quality lawn and replaced it with a gravel garden. We usually get rid of leaves that lay thick on the gravel because we don’t want them rotting down on the gravel in case the weeds find it easier to root.
That does sound sensible, although not alot of fun! Getting leaves off gravel must be a bit of a challenge, but I completely agree with your reasoning.
In USA – well Connecticut at least – people sweep all their leaves up and leave them in piles on the edge of the pavement. The council then comes round and collects them all. We saw this in action only a couple or so weeks ago. Everywhere we went, there were large (and I mean large) piles of leaves on the edges of pavements, spilling onto roads. They do have a lot of trees in Connecticut, so I guess it makes sense for the council to take the the leaves and make compost which they can then sell back to the inhabitants.
I agree this is a good option if it’s being composted although I understand that in some places, it goes into landfill, which is a real waste. I wondered whether the habit of creating piles of leaves in this way contributed to the issue over leaf moulds and allergies, and whether it was one reason why the US seems more concerned about leaves and allergies than we are. But, on the other hand, they’re presumably not being left for very long. As you say, they do have a lot of trees, so their solutions are likely to be different from ours. Thank you for commenting.
This is a very useful article. My garden has many more evergreen trees than deciduous ones, but many leaves blow in from neighboring gardens. I like to collect the leaves for leaf mold. But this year I will leave the ones that land in my borders.
Thank you
This year I decided to use leaves to my advantage by putting them in front of my Stonewall to create a pathway and planting area for the following year. I tried it out in another location last winter and it worked at suppressing really vigorously growing golden rod. So this year I’ve decided to do it in front of the Stonewall and I’ve been gathering leaves from everywhere that I can
and putting them in front of the Stonewall and around Plantings to suppress grass and eliminate colonies of Goldenrod in places I don’t want them. It does seem to be working, it’s an excellent way to build pathways through a wild area. You just weed whack it down the grass and lay down your thick mat of leaves let it die down over the winter and the following spring you can either lay stone or just put in regular mulch and it will be great You can also plant into it and because the plant is above the leaves it has a head start. You can leave the leaves under crushed stones as well and it will suppress seeds blowing into plantings. It makes a great of food but it also because it takes the time to break down is great at killing off areas so if you want to eliminate things putting down a pile of leaves on top of it is a great way of doing it. And it’s free.
Interesting approach, thank you.