When the trees are stripped bare at the end of the season and our yards are covered in a layer of colorful leaves, most of us automatically reach for the rake. After all – a clean yard is a tidy yard, right? For decades, removing leaves in the fall has been an almost ritualistic chore, performed with a sense of duty to aesthetics, order – and our neighbors. But as awareness of climate change and biodiversity grows, even this most traditional of gardening tasks is coming under scrutiny.
