October is one of the most picturesque times of the year in Iowa. We all love the beautiful fall leaves. That is, until they actually fall. Then we hate them.
I admit I always resented this annual war on fallen leaves. As a kid, it was my job to rake the red and orange and yellow leaves into big crispy mounds and gather them up to be disposed of. In those days, fall leaves were burned, which filled the air with gagging, acrid haze that never seemed to go away. It’s a wonder those piles of burning leaves didn’t catch the whole town on fire. To me, the sensible thing to do would be to have left the beautiful carpet of leaves right where it was, for everybody to admire, for kids to play in. But it was as if, once the leaves were on the ground, people became ashamed of them—like grass that had been allowed to grow too long or like trash piling up in the yard. Curiously, adults seemed to feel responsible for their leaves—as if they fell to the ground through some act of human negligence and now they had to atone by quickly getting rid of the evidence.
The issue of what to do with fall leaves has become a major concern for cities. Arrangements must be made for residents to rake their leaves to the curb on specific days so the city’s special leaf vacuums can slurp them up and whisk them out of sight—all at great trouble and expense. It’s a kind of mild mass hysteria. All those pretty leaves aren’t hurting anybody, and yet we have agreed they absolutely must go.
I suspect Iowa City is addressing the pretend problem of fall leaves by only pretending to remove them. The city has devised a complicated system of leaf pick up zones and a baffling and mostly secret schedule for removal. Plus, the last pickup date is October 24, before most of the leaves are down anyway. For the past two years, I dutifully raked my leaves to the curb on the appointed day, as did my neighbors and waited and waited for the leaf vacuum that never came. But the wind blew and the rain fell and in the spring, the lawn mowers mulched up the old, dead leaves. And before long, it was as if they were never there.
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that in 2018, around 10.5 million tons of leaves and other yard waste ended up in landfills, creating methane, a greenhouse gas affecting climate change. Some experts say that, instead of bagging up fall leaves, it would be better for the environment and better for your lawn to leave them alone. A naturalist for the National Wildlife Federation, David Mizejewski, told USA Today that fall leaves provide a natural fertilizer for plants and grass. “They slowly break down and compost right there at the base of the tree or the shrub, right above its root zone, where they return nutrients that the plant can then recycle and reuse next spring.”
I have decided to be at peace with my leaves. I am going to hang up my rake, find a comfortable chair and get ready to, um, fall back.