Please read me…
Leaves have plenty of DNA in them. The three major secondary metabolites of plants are phenolics, terpenoids, and nitrogenous organic compounds. Listen to pronunciation. (meh-TA-boh-lite) A substance made or used when the body breaks down food, drugs or chemicals, or its own tissue (for example, fat or muscle tissue). This process, called metabolism, makes energy and the materials needed for growth, reproduction, and maintaining health. It’s basically fiber which, when I eat it all the time, I feel like a rabbit, constantly chewing. We do need some fiber but we also need some fun and not be 100% healthy all the time. Makes me crazy when people get dogmatic about food.
I’m all over this one because I have a 200 year old American Elm in my front yard, 4 big maple and a red maple in my backyard and a bazillion leaves every fall. If you leave them on the ground, it helps the bugs have a warm place to reproduce which is good for all of nature. Bugs and spiders are beneficial. If you mulch them it clogs up the grass roots so I don’t necessarily agree with that. We rake most of them and pile them up to turn into soil over a few years.
It was my mom’s idea to turn them into detritus to make soil for my raised bed and it worked. (Blue 3 Hand mediated by Earth. She’s very earthy). Then the critters proceeded to eat every healthy, leafy green in my organic garden. I have a rabbit family here. So, it’s another problem to remedy. I’ll hire someone to put a fence around it next year bc I’d rather write ✍️.