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Article: Leave It to Leaves; To Blanket the Ground and Enrich the Soil
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 5, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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They fall from the sky by the billion, lining streets, coating
lawns, clogging gutters. The delight of children, the chore of
disgruntled rakers, the shining leaves of autumn in actuality contain
the promise of the earth's rebirth.
To gardeners, the annual carpet of leaves is the prime ingredient
of that most magical potion for garden soil: humus. Anyone who has
walked through a forest and scratched at the soft ground under a
canopy of trees knows that leaves, if left where they fall and fed by
rain, will by their own accord transform themselves into crumbly,
black humus, enriching and invigorating all that it touches.
Humus is that almost indefinable substance that results from the ...