November 06, 1986 - Watch Out: Falling LeavesWatch Out: Falling Leaves
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
One week our trees were bathed in
the color of fall. The next, their
leaves lay a golden -brown mat on the
lawns and woods about our house.
They have been falling gently in spi-
rals, glides and dives, depending
upon the particular shape that na-
ture left them before being turned
loose.
Most people don't think too highly
of leaves, for they usually mean work
because they cover the lawn and the
driveway, or clog up rain gutters. Yet
when you think about it, we all owe
much to fallen leaves. Before we had
fertile farmlands, much of the land
east of the Mississippi was woodland
in one form or another, and through
thousands of years, the soil was
gradually enriched by the decaying
of leaves, branches and, eventually,
fallen trees. Today, most of us take
this free crop of nutrients to the
dump and then replace it with a
costly fertilizer that, if not carefully
applied, could impair the quality of
our drinking water.
Now, I'm not advocating giving up
raking leaves from the lawn, for I do
it myself once in a while, but what I
do suggest is trying to utilize the
leaves in one way or another. Slowly
our world is waking up, and more
and more people are composting
these important nutrients back into
the ground.
Composting Made Easy
There are all kinds of ways to
speed up the decomposition of leaves
that any good garden book will spell
out in detail. Hopefully, in the fu-
ture, all municipalities will have a
place to put leaves where they'll be
processed and turned into rich
humus. Brookhaven Town is already
doing this. We here in Southold have
a special place for leaves at the land-
fill where we try to incorporate them
into the soil. One big problem,
though, is the plastic bags that they
are brought in. The leaves should be
dumped out of the bags because the
plastic will not disintegrate and only
causes havoc.
Decomposition is a pretty remark-
able process, when you think about
it. Microbes, bacteria, fungus,
worms, insects and a hundred other
processes that man is just starting to
understand go into this transforma-
tion of dead organic material into
useful soil.
I was reminded of the simple
earthworm and its part in this com-
Focus on
Nature
plicated process when I saw a pile of
leavings alongside one of its holes.
Most people know the earthworm
only as a curious wiggling creature
thrown up in a spadeful of earth in
the garden, or perhaps remember, as
a youngster, using it as bait for fish-
ing. Few know how important this
lowly creature is in aerating the soil
by riddling the earth with its holes,
or the nutrients it brings in piles to
the surface after digesting the dead
plant material it feeds on. So impor-
tant are the tailings that are cast up
that some countries in the Far East
actually collect and use them as
highly efficient fertilizers.
Night Crawler Hunting
One of the great delights our
grandson looks forward to is catching
night crawlers or earthworms by
flashlight. It's particularly good
hunting after a rain or when the
ground is moist, for earthworms
breathe through their wet skin and
if dried out would die. Walk softly
and be quick to grab is the first rule
in gathering night crawlers. Night-
time is when these creatures leave
the ground and probe around on the
surface to gather up the dead plant
material they thrive on.
Sometimes leaf stems can be seen
sticking upright on your lawn when
the worms have unsuccessfully tried
to pull them down their holes.
Worms are visible digesters of plant
material, but the greater numbers of
digesters are so small that only a
high - powered microscope would re-
veal their presence.
Leaves are a great source of enjoy-
ment to the young. Our grandchil-
dren love to dive and frolic in piles of
freshly fallen raked leaves. There's
something exciting about leaping
into the unknown and hiding deep
within the light fluffy cover. Even
the dog gets involved with barking
and charging about to add to the ex-
citement.
Last week we were alone in our
woods with the dazzle of golden
leaves hiding us from our neighbors.
This week, at night, new lights for
the season can once again be seen.
We no longer have the canopy of
leaves to hide us.
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Greenport Call In/Take Out
The Suffolk Times /November 6, 1986 /Page 9A
Photo by Peggy Dickerson
FALL LEAVES - -The good part about raking leaves, if you have little
children or grandchildren, is that they make a wonderful place to jump
and play.
Stocking up is going on all around
us at this time of the year. The squir-
rel with his nuts and mice with their
cherry pits and hickory nuts are all
preparing for cold winter days ahead.
We, too, are stocking up; potatoes
will be out in the coolness of the gar-
age along with the hanging sack of
onions, boxes of winter squash and
sweet poatoes given to us by a good
friend in Orient. This, along with a
healthy supply of vegetables already
in the freezer and a good variety of
jams and jellies in the cellar, will see
us through the winter.
Yes, fall is just about over now.
-'he blustery winds of winter will
soon be sneaking through every
crack and crevice they can find in our
homes. Winters come and winters go
and I've found that the best way to
deal with the changing seasons is to
enjoy each one with its own particu-
lar gifts -- take these gifts and ye
shall be rewarded.
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