Why You Should Leave Your Leaves

The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Epic Gardening

Home & Garden, Education, Leisure, How To

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leaves create a great habitat for some of your favorite critters. Leave your leaves and garden for wildlife! Connect With David Mizejewski: David Mizejewski is a naturalist, author and television presenter with the National Wildlife Federation. He holds a degree in Human and Natural Ecology from Emory University and has hosted television series on both Animal Planet and NatGeo WILD. He's dedicated to helping others understand and protect the natural world, especially by restoring wildlife habitat where people live—which is the subject of his bestselling garden how-to book “Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife.” David’s Social Media: Instagram YouTube Twitter Website Linkedin National Wildlife Federation Social Media: Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 5% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We've talked before about fall garden care, or perhaps fall garden lack of care, and
0:18.4	I suspect we're going to get into a little bit of that with today's guest, David Mesojuski,
0:22.5	a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation.
0:25.8	I've had a friend of mine and actually are my publisher.
0:29.1	David Jessica Wallace are on the podcast before, and this is the first time I was introduced
0:33.6	to the concept, like maybe three, four years ago, about just letting your garden sort of
0:37.4	be in the fall.
0:39.4	I don't really live in a deciduous area, so I don't have a lot of fall leaves.
0:42.4	I certainly have fall debris, though, and so I'm curious, you know, why should someone
0:47.3	leave their leaves?
0:48.3	Well, leaves are habitat.
0:50.9	So think about it this way.
0:52.4	That layer of leaves or other debris that accumulates under growing plants, pretty much
0:58.4	all ecosystems have that.
1:00.0	And so there's a whole community of creatures that live actually in that leaf layer.
1:07.2	A lot of them are insects and other invertebrates, but you know, everything from, you know, small
1:12.7	mammals like shrews or weasels are living and hunting within that leaf layer, reptiles
1:18.0	like box turtles, amphibians like toads.
1:20.9	They're all relying on that as their primary habitat.
1:24.5	And one group of animals that a lot of people are surprised to find, really rely on that
1:28.9	leaf layer are butterflies and moths.
1:32.1	There are many species of butterflies and moths that overwinter as either pupa or in some
	...

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