What kind of nutrients do falling leaves really have? Are they just drained out empty shells of their former selves? Answers vary.

Some older studies show commercially collected fallen leaves in urban centers contained nasty elements such as lead and cadmium because the tree leaves were swept up by machine along with portions of lead-contaminated soil.

Today in Calgary and Qualicum Beach, leaves collected in your garden using hand tools are most likely safe. We no longer use lead in our paints or in our gasoline and if you are collecting just the leaves, not sweeping up the soil, you will only get the elements contained in the leaves.

The big bonus in Alberta is leaves may contain more nutrients than leaves collected in warmer climates because leaf colour changes so fast. I found one paper referring to Aspen (a common native tree) showing that because they change colour right after the first frost, minerals are literally frozen in the leaves and not moved first into storage in the tree. So they are good for your soil. Working outside collecting those leavesboosts your endorphins so is – obviously – good for your soul.

What the Experts Say
“It has been shown that mature leaves of Populus tremula sensing rapidly under oxidative stress induced by low temperatures retained a large proportion of their maximum nutrient content at full senescence, probably because phloem activity declined rapidly (Fracheboud et al., 2009) http://bit.ly/2dlbLOe

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
This is excellent news for gardeners wanting to use collected leaves for their gardens. If you want to save leaves, check out my daughter’s web page to see how you can make your own lasagna garden: http://bit.ly/Chelsies

If you want to dump all that garden gold check out the City of Calgary list of locations and times to dump leaves: http://bit.ly/Cityleaves