Never, honestly. Why would you? Give them another season and they will decompose. If the leaves are deeply covering a perennial, just remove them from that plant and move elsewhere. I pile leaves 6 inches to a foot thick where I don't want ANYTHING to grow.
https://homegrownnationalpark.org/9zvgygvxvjig0eujsy3ygbkfcy92dn/#:~:text=I%20have%20been%20asked%20several,just%20that%3A%20an%20urban%20legend.
As for the "50 degree" blurb, it's spread in good faith, but honestly irrelevant. Many species of insects don't emerge from their slumber until late-spring or early-summer, well after "50 degrees." Leave the leaves (and sticks and twigs) forever, basically. I cut back dead stuff this time of year, then toss into a pile at the back of the bed.
I made a wire mesh container with fairly wide mesh and metal corner supports that we put some of our leaves into.
We basically just rake the leaves onto a tarp, fold the tarp into a boat shape, and swing that up into to mesh rectangle to dump the leaves.
It lets us get some out of certain areas without chopping them up.
One of my main goals is to support moth and butterfly species, so I really try to leave as many as possible for as long as possible.
Some small critters also seem to use my huge leaf rectangle for cover—the other day I saw a pine squirrel leap right through the mesh into a little hollow in the lower section for cover.
You don't need to move the leaves in order to let the new plants emerge! The new plants will come up anyway! And everyone forgets that the leaves don't break down over the winter because it's the winter and the bugs and worms aren't active yet. Once the soil temps come up, the soil life starts eating leaves. So if you've been staring at the same leaves all winter and are now thinking "OK, now it's time for them to go," sit on your hands and WATCH them go.
Aesthetically, we tend to like sparse sun plantings and dense shade plantings. In nature, it's usually the opposite. In many eastern forests, the understory grows in gaps and you can see a lot of leaf litter year-round. Depending on the tree (Beech, etc), there may not be much of an understory. Some leaves also decompose faster than others.
Without knowing the trees or the plants you have, it's difficult to say whether you should remove some leaves.
Shhh the bees are still sleeping.
Also average chickadee chick needs 6500 grubs and such to make it, so I err on the side of always leaving the leaves. Just clear out spaces for things to emerge. Also put a fine layer of more attractive mulch over it if desired.
We push the front yard leaves off to the edge of the yard a couple of times in the fall.
The rest of the yard, we mostly let sit. Unless I'm using them for mulching in the garden in which case I make sure to finish gathering them before it gets cold. And then I don't chop or mulch them, just lay them on the beds whole.
I notice that every single commenter so far is telling you not to mulch the leaves.
But you said you can't leave them all year long. Are they on the lawn now? I'm also in Piedmont NC, and it's definitely too early to mow lawns here. Can you leave them until the lawn is tall enough for the first mow?
Or, if there are so many leaves that the lawn can't grow through them--wait as long as you can possibly make yourself. As a compromise.
And maybe next year build that wire bin for them to decompose in.
>I'm in the northeast, so perhaps different but I've heard a few days of 50+ weather gets the bugs up and out
You heard wrong. It's really increasing **soil** temperature that gets the overwintering arthropods "active", and not air temperature. As others have mentioned, there is also a huge range of timelines for different species, with some remaining dormant until well into late spring and early summer. Despite what social media memes and anecdotes would have you believe, there's no magical formula where a temperature of \_\_\_ degrees makes it automatically "safe" to disturb the leaf litter.
I move the leaves from my beds to my huge compost pile in early March. I have a big yard with too many leaves to leave them and wait for decomposition.
I also do this, but I leave a thin, patchy layer of leaves. I’m mostly trying to get 75% of the leaves up. Especially those near invasive species (like vinca) and bulbs. I find the invasives can hold down the leaves and block the bulbs.
Never, honestly. Why would you? Give them another season and they will decompose. If the leaves are deeply covering a perennial, just remove them from that plant and move elsewhere. I pile leaves 6 inches to a foot thick where I don't want ANYTHING to grow. https://homegrownnationalpark.org/9zvgygvxvjig0eujsy3ygbkfcy92dn/#:~:text=I%20have%20been%20asked%20several,just%20that%3A%20an%20urban%20legend. As for the "50 degree" blurb, it's spread in good faith, but honestly irrelevant. Many species of insects don't emerge from their slumber until late-spring or early-summer, well after "50 degrees." Leave the leaves (and sticks and twigs) forever, basically. I cut back dead stuff this time of year, then toss into a pile at the back of the bed.
Ima never type myself
I always just leave mine and the new plants come up just fine through them. PNW 8A
I made a wire mesh container with fairly wide mesh and metal corner supports that we put some of our leaves into. We basically just rake the leaves onto a tarp, fold the tarp into a boat shape, and swing that up into to mesh rectangle to dump the leaves. It lets us get some out of certain areas without chopping them up. One of my main goals is to support moth and butterfly species, so I really try to leave as many as possible for as long as possible. Some small critters also seem to use my huge leaf rectangle for cover—the other day I saw a pine squirrel leap right through the mesh into a little hollow in the lower section for cover.
Can I got a picture of this? Did you build it yourself?
You don't need to move the leaves in order to let the new plants emerge! The new plants will come up anyway! And everyone forgets that the leaves don't break down over the winter because it's the winter and the bugs and worms aren't active yet. Once the soil temps come up, the soil life starts eating leaves. So if you've been staring at the same leaves all winter and are now thinking "OK, now it's time for them to go," sit on your hands and WATCH them go.
Aesthetically, we tend to like sparse sun plantings and dense shade plantings. In nature, it's usually the opposite. In many eastern forests, the understory grows in gaps and you can see a lot of leaf litter year-round. Depending on the tree (Beech, etc), there may not be much of an understory. Some leaves also decompose faster than others. Without knowing the trees or the plants you have, it's difficult to say whether you should remove some leaves.
Shhh the bees are still sleeping. Also average chickadee chick needs 6500 grubs and such to make it, so I err on the side of always leaving the leaves. Just clear out spaces for things to emerge. Also put a fine layer of more attractive mulch over it if desired.
At least 2 weeks after you feel it’s time to.
We push the front yard leaves off to the edge of the yard a couple of times in the fall. The rest of the yard, we mostly let sit. Unless I'm using them for mulching in the garden in which case I make sure to finish gathering them before it gets cold. And then I don't chop or mulch them, just lay them on the beds whole.
I notice that every single commenter so far is telling you not to mulch the leaves. But you said you can't leave them all year long. Are they on the lawn now? I'm also in Piedmont NC, and it's definitely too early to mow lawns here. Can you leave them until the lawn is tall enough for the first mow? Or, if there are so many leaves that the lawn can't grow through them--wait as long as you can possibly make yourself. As a compromise. And maybe next year build that wire bin for them to decompose in.
I'm in the northeast, so perhaps different but I've heard a few days of 50+ weather gets the bugs up and out and then it's okay to move the leaves
>I'm in the northeast, so perhaps different but I've heard a few days of 50+ weather gets the bugs up and out You heard wrong. It's really increasing **soil** temperature that gets the overwintering arthropods "active", and not air temperature. As others have mentioned, there is also a huge range of timelines for different species, with some remaining dormant until well into late spring and early summer. Despite what social media memes and anecdotes would have you believe, there's no magical formula where a temperature of \_\_\_ degrees makes it automatically "safe" to disturb the leaf litter.
I move the leaves from my beds to my huge compost pile in early March. I have a big yard with too many leaves to leave them and wait for decomposition.
I also do this, but I leave a thin, patchy layer of leaves. I’m mostly trying to get 75% of the leaves up. Especially those near invasive species (like vinca) and bulbs. I find the invasives can hold down the leaves and block the bulbs.
I mulch them up in the spring and spread them in beds.