Creating Next Year's Sparkle of Fireflies

What you do, or don't do, now matters!

Image by Oner Mopoℨ (Unsplash)

An incredibly exciting development you can create in your garden is a growing "sparkle" of fireflies. My small front garden is aglow in the evenings from mid June into early July. You can easily attract fireflies to your garden too! The best news is when it comes to fireflies, less is definitely more.

Fireflies are a type of flying beetle and, according to National Geographic, there are over 2000 species worldwide. Firefly larva overwinter in areas with a bit of moisture and fallen leaves and other garden debris.

Mimic nature to increase the chances your garden will have more and more fireflies. The first step is to eliminate pesticides including mosquito fogging and lawn treatments with pesticides. These can often harm both the fireflies and the insects they rely on for food. The second step is to leave as many fallen leaves in your garden as you are able. If you can add a few rotting logs and branches and a garden area that remains undisturbed, all the better.

How to Leave the Leaves and Not Have a Mess

We are quite accustomed to breaking out the mulching mowers, blowers and rakes as soon as the weather turns crisp and leaves begin to fall. It's all in the name of fall clean-up and tidying the garden for winter. Certainly it is important to make sure walks and pathways are clear and safe and to remove fallen leaves from lawns you want to preserve. Beyond that though, we have a ton more leeway than we once thought. To encourage nature, tidier is definitely not better.

And there is more. The Penn State Extension Service estimates the leaves from one large shade tree may be worth $50 of plant food and humus! The Service says leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. Fun fact!

So what to do with those leaves?

Garden Beds

Raking leaves into garden beds is the very best option. The leaves eventually break down and nourish soil. You may have your own modus operandi with this. I have found the beds opposite the direction of the prevailing winds are the best locations. The leaves tend to stay put in those spots. I also have a few areas behind a shed and under a deck where I can tuck in some leaves.

trillium and foamflower

Virginia bluebells

Once spring arrives, there are very few plants that can't grow through a matted layer of leaves. This is what plants do out in the forests where no raking is occurring. Both of these beds had heavy layers of leaves through the winter and the spring plants emerge with no problems.

Leaf Cage

Short on garden space? You can make a simple leaf cage with a few feet of chicken wire. Nothing complicated is necessary. I also know gardeners who put the leaves in paper lawn bags and let them decay in an unseen corner. Whichever container you decide to use, after a year or two, you will have leaf mold, one of the best soil amendments there is.

Converting Lawn to Gardening Space

If you have a section of lawn you would like to convert to a garden bed this winter, you can cover that area with cardboard and leaves and surround the new bed to be with an inexpensive wire garden fence to contain the leaves. It will be ready for planting by spring.

Gathering Those Leaves

Another less is more situation. Avoid mulching leaves. While mulched leaves do make a great addition to the compost pile, you are also potentially mulching the young insects and larva. To move leaves, use the least aggressive method you can. Raking is better than blowing. Gathering by hand is better than raking. In my garden, I rake and it has worked well.

Considerations for Smaller Gardens

Depending on your tree canopy, you may have more leaves than you can manage. All leaves are not equal. Some take much longer to break down. Southern magnolia leaves are known for being very durable and take years to break down. If you are short on space, you may want to prioritize keeping leaves that break down more readily.

In my area, the local government provides a curbside leaf pickup program - primarily to keep leaves out of storm drains. Accumulated leaves can easily block storm drain flow and cause puddling at best and flooding at worst. The best thing we can do in small gardens is use as many leaves as possible and send the excess to municipal pick-up programs.

Do you have other ideas for using leaves? Please share!

Lighting

old style

newer LED light with no blue tones

The last step to increase your sparkle is to reduce outdoor lighting. Scientists say bright lights interfere with firefly communication and insect navigation. They also attract many types of other insects, often leading to their demise. If purchasing new outdoor lights, look for 'dark sky compliant' lighting, now widely available. For existing lighting, use motion sensors where possible and switch to bulbs under 3000k that eliminate the blue tones. Options for outdoor bulbs have vastly improved if you have not looked recently. Traditional "bug lights" tended to be incandescent bulbs painted yellow on the inside of the bulb creating, well, a very yellow light that did not filter out the harmful blue tones. There are now options such as LED lights where the blue spectrum is filtered out - much more pleasing to the eye and more effective for protecting insects.

Once it is all said and done, by doing less, we can be doing more for the fireflies. Bring on the sparkles!

Happy Gardening.