By Juliane Saary-Littman
Election — a formal and organized choice by vote of a person for a political office or other position.
To elect — choose (someone) to hold public office or some other position by voting; opt for or choose to do something.
Leaves — the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration.
I love trees. And I love their leaves. They come in all shapes and sizes and with the change in season they also come in all colors. Do you remember how we used to collect those colorful treasures and pressed them between heavy book pages? So beautiful and fragile.
I fondly remember creating live size “trees” with my children by gluing the pressed leaves to cardboard to bring a bit of nature inside our house during the long winter; they lightened up our entry way for many months.
Herbstlaubtrittvergnügen. The first time, I came across the word was in the New York Times. It holds the promise of a sunny fall day, walking through a thick layer of crinkling fallen leaves, full of childish innocence. I dare you to find a definition on the Internet.
The problem is, that just like it’s difficult to find a definition for the word, it is an equal challenge to find leaves in our neighborhood.
We have a strange relationship to leaves. We all know and are acutely aware how important trees and their leaves are. We love watching leaves bud in the spring, enjoy their cool shade in the summer, and admire their changing colors in the fall. Heck, we even brave the Long Island traffic to drive upstate for leaf peeping.
But as soon as leaves fall and are no longer attached to a tree, they turn into something that needs to go, fast. So, our landscapers are busy removing every leaf from every corner of our properties as soon as they have hit the ground — or so it seems.
There are no leaves to find in our neighborhoods to create the Herbstlaubtrittvergnügen that is so enjoyable. I just recently came across a short video clip (yes, on Facebook), that showed a dog running full speed and head first into a big pile of leaves. So much fun. I am not even looking for a big pile; I am just looking for a light cover to create that feeling of fall to go together with the cooler temperatures.
Let’s think about that from a circle of life perspective of a single tree. In the spring, the sap rises in the tree and feeds the budding leaves. During the summer months, the tree nourishes its maturing leaves. At the end of the season, when the leaves fall to the ground and we have them carted away, we are not only removing precious organic matter from our garden, we also remove the nutrients that the tree has drawn out of the soil and put into those leaves.
It doesn’t take a soil scientist to know that this will be a big problem eventually. After a couple of years, it’ll become necessary to pay to replenish the nutrients that we have paid to be removed in the first place. Where is the logic in that?
I know that there are areas in our garden where leaves must be removed, like our walkways, decks, gutters and driveways. But with a little mulching, leaves on the lawn replenish the soil with beautiful organic matter, at lower cost and less pollution.
Left under shrubs and trees, leaves form a blanket to protect your plants and insulate from temperature swings. Earthworms eat decaying leaves, and their waste provides nutrients that the soil absorbs. Come spring, to allow your flower bulbs to grow, that protective layer can easily be removed with a rake. A win-win for all.
This election season, you can win by electing to make a couple of small changes in your yard care. And if you’ve delegated all that to your landscapers, they know those are the right steps; you just need to make sure they know, that this is what you want them to do.
I still owe you a translation for Herbstlaubtrittvergnügen. Herbst = fall; Laub = leaves; Tritt = step; Vergnügen = joy. It refers to the joy of walking through fallen leaves during the fall season. Do we really have to travel all the way upstate to be able to enjoy that?
Juliane Saary-Littman
Port Washington
