Let Them Be Left

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins had the right idea: “O let them be left!” We’re talking about those fallen leaves. No rush to rid your garden of the natural mulch of leaf litter. Instead, shred them, or give them a good mowing, and scatter them back to help your plants over-winter. In spring, dig what’s left of them into the soil.