I leave all the leaves in my yard, and mine is the only one with a lot of fireflies. It’s amazing at night
Comment on some days i cant even
Saurok@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Obligatory “leave the leaves” if you can. Insects and small animals use the leaf litter and they’re good for soil creation (thanks, worms and fungi). Wondering why you don’t see as many lightning bugs/fireflies nowadays? Leave your leaves and they’ll have places to lay their eggs. Avoid becoming a member of the cult of the lawn!
Taldan@lemmy.world 2 days ago
WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Depends on the climate and the number of trees. I understand wanting to leave all the leaves, but it’ll just create a muddy mess in my yard. I mulch them, it spreads through the yard. I circle around the trees and garden beds to get more leaves in those areas. Leftovers go on the composting pile.
WALLACE@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Yeah the tree:land ratio of my back garden is highly in favour of the trees. Every autumn the entire area gets coated in a thick layer of sycamore leaves that can easily take a year to decompose even in a compost pile. I rake that shit into piles over my flowerbeds for the winter, then into the compost during the spring. I would mow them but it’s the UK so it’s rare to find an autumn day where the leaves aren’t too wet and soggy.
marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 2 days ago
Ewwww, there are bugs in my lawn‽ Kill them kill them kill them!
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Oh no! Are there completely harmless animals outside?! How scary!
marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
Absolutely terrifying! Do you have a flamethrower I can borrow?
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Stay inside in your nice sterile house if nature is too scary.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 days ago
I’m so angry. I had leaves for two years and the city made me remove them like right during the nesting period. So it’s gonna be another two years before I see an increase in fireflies.
luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 days ago
My grandpa apparently went to war with the municipal council over his unmown meadow. Had a decent piece of land with wild flowers and grasses and all that. The story was told to me second-hand about 15 years ago and is at least 30-40 years old, but if I got it right, he mowed that land once per year in fall.
The council wasn’t happy with that, because he was supposed to mowed it twice per year, once in spring. Grandpa refused to cut down the flowers in their bloom, both because of all the things living in and off that and because pretty. Stern letter, discussions in person, deadline was set and went by. All the while, the “unkempt” non-lawn grew.
Eventually council imposed a fine. Obviously, a fine is supposed to compel a change in behaviour, but they couldn’t set deadlines tight enough or the initial fine high enough to actually hurt him, so he just paid his “fuck your lawns” fee year by year.
I believe they gave up at some point, but I’m not sure whether that’s just wishful thinking. In any case, that meadow was still growing wild and free when I was old enough to assist in the yearly mowing, long after his death.
Obviously, we can’t all afford to stick it to the local bean counters that stubbornly, but it’s nice to dream sometimes.