by Melissa Ozawa
Nature is resourceful. It doesn’t pay for mulch or fertilizer or hire a team to blow away leaves. It doesn’t bag up grass clippings and send them to the landfill. And it doesn’t chop down dead trees or branches and truck them away. It makes everything it needs and uses everything it makes. Leaves feed insects and other wildlife. Insects feed birds. Dead leaves and trees feed the soil. And the soil feeds the plant. And on and on it goes. Nothing is “waste,” and nothing goes to waste. It’s a perfect cycle—one that has worked for millennia. When caring for your yard ask yourself: What Would Nature Do (WWND)? And then follow its lead. One simple way to do this is to “close the loop,” says Edwina von Gal, founder of Perfect Earth Project. “Let nothing leave your property and bring nothing in—except for plants.” You’ll save money, reduce fossil fuel use, provide essential habitat for biodiversity, support the ecosystem the way nature intended, and have fun. Here are five easy ways to Close the Loop.
Mulch mow your lawn.
Grass clippings are free food for your lawn. Use a mulching mower or add a mulching kit to your existing mower. The mulcher finely chops the clippings, so they decompose quickly, feeding your lawn. No mess. No bags. No need for fertilizer.
Grow a living mulch.
Why buy imported mulch when you can grow a living mulch? Plant a soft landing in the area beneath a native tree’s dripline with a diverse mix of native plants. Choose a selection of shallow-rooted native plants suited to your locale, such as violets and wild geranium in the Northeast, and carefully dig them in, being mindful not to damage the tree’s roots. Plugs are a great option since they’re small. (Learn more about soft landings in our interview with Heather Holm and Leslie Pilgrim, who coined the phrase.)
For a soft landing to be successful, it’s important that the tree and the plants growing beneath it be native. Learn more about native plants here. Photograph by Toshi Yano.
Ordering mulch every year is expensive, wasteful, and uses fossil fuel to deliver it to your yard. Also, mulch is often misused, piled high up a tree trunk creating what is known as a “tree volcano.” Not just an eyesore, a tree volcano is harmful, even deadly. It smothers the roots, starving them of oxygen, and will eventually weaken and kill the tree. Soft landings, on the other hand, are beautiful and beneficial. But don’t just stop at trees. Grow a living mulch of native plants in all your beds instead of using imported woodchips.
Leave the leaves.
Dried leaves not only feed the soil, but they also provide vital habitat for insects, who overwinter on them. In a recent study, entomologist Max Ferlauto of the Maryland Natural Heritage Program discovered that “When you remove the leaves, you reduce your butterfly and moth emergence by about 45%. And you reduce your spider population by about 56%, and your beetle population by about 25%,” he said on a recent Xerces podcast Bug Banter episode. Leave the leaves where they fall. It’s okay to sweep away any that have collected on paths and driveways and divert them to areas under shrubs and trees or put them in the compost. It’s a simple thing to do to help with the biodiversity crisis.
Luna Moths are just one of many butterfly and moth species that overwinter in leaf litter. Protect them by leaving the leaves, especially beneath trees.
Keep deadwood standing.
Whether you call them snags or tree sculptures, dead trees are crucial to the ecosystem. According to the National Wildlife Federation, they provide habitat for a thousand species of wildlife in the U.S., including woodpeckers, bats, and squirrels. As the tree decays, insects, fungi, lichen, and moss move in, offering a feast for wildlife. As Smithsonian magazine reports, “Estimates suggest that one third of insect species in a forest rely on deadwood in some way—and these insects are food for other invertebrates, as well as birds and bats.”
A regal snag stands at the Georgica Pond Preserve in East Hampton, which was recently restored as a meadow. Judging by the abundance of owl pellets at the base of the snag, birds of prey have been frequenting its branches. Photograph by Tim Wheeler.
If you’re concerned about safety, remove any branches that pose a risk. Cut up logs and stack them into wood piles. Or slice 3- to 4-inch-thick rounds to create “tree cookies” (see photo below) to form into pathways, like von Gal does on her property. Tree cookies are especially good in high traffic areas or in places that have struggled to sustain grass or moss.
Edwina von Gal creates “tree cookies” out of large branches. To place them, she digs about three to four inches deep, embeds the tree slice into the ground, and then fills in the area around them.
For smaller branches and other plant debris, craft habitat stacks or weave “dead hedges” out of branches. These areas offer shelter for small birds and other critters, protecting them from predators like hawks. (To see more examples of habitat stacks, read our story).
To create a dead hedge, von Gal weaves in fallen branches around the perimeter of her property. While the tree branches may no longer be living, the hedge becomes full of life as insects, fungi, and small wildlife move in. Photograph by Tim Wheeler.
Make compost.
In a designated bin or a pile in your yard, add a mix of green materials (vegetable scraps and fresh garden cuttings) and brown matter (dried leaves, twigs, wood chips, and leftover soil). Each time you add green material to your compost heap, throw in some brown material to keep the pile fresh. If it starts to smell bad, add more “brown” bits. Turn the pile to speed up the process or simply let it be, to decompose gradually. You’ll know your compost is ready when it looks dark and crumbly. (Learn more about making compost.)
This is part of a series with Gardenista, which ran on September 25, 2025.
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