The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: Leave the Leaves!
Leaves are not litter
They're food and shelter for butterflies, beetles, bees, moths, and more. Tell friends and neighbors to just #leavetheleaves
Source with pictures of example soft landing gardens, plant lists tailored to the North American Eastern Temperate Forests can be found:
https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html
Oaks are universally the top keystone trees that support moths and butterflies. Across the United States, more than 940 types of caterpillars feed on oaks (Quercus).
Top genera: Oak, Willow, Cherry, Pines, Poplar
Lepidoptera in image: Great oak dagger moth, Luna moth, Red-banded hairstreak, Eastern buck moth
Many of the moths and butterflies that feed on oak trees must complete their life cycles in the duff and leaf litter (i.e., soft landings) near or beneath the tree, or below ground.
Lepidoptera in image: Blinded sphinx moth, Juvenal's duskywing, Hog moth
Creating soft landings under the dripline of oaks (as well as any other tree) invites all kinds of beneficial insects to complete their life cycles in your yard.
A number of beneficial insects such as fireflies, bumble bees, beetles, and lacewings need soft landings to survive.
Lepidoptera in image: Edwards hairstreak, Skiff moth, Pink-striped oakworm
Planting intentional soft landings under keystone trees builds healthy soil, provides food for songbirds and pollinators, sequesters more carbon than turf grass, and reduces time spent mowing.
Other ways to support insects that spend a phase of their life cycle beneath trees include eliminating landscape fabric and decreasing mowing to reduce soil compaction.
DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE THE LEAVES UNDER YOUR TREES!
Huffin' the flowers has been a huge stress relief here in the Southeastern USA Plains.
The shrub on the right is buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). Flowers are: orange coneflower (Rudbeckia 'goldsturm'), sweet Joe-Pye (Eutrochium purpureum), anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), pokeberry (Phytolacca americana), and catmint (Nepeta × faassenii).
Closer to the ground there's: wood sorrel (Oxalis sp.), three seeded mercury (Acalypha rhomboidea) and blue violets (Viola sororia). The empty space has wild stawberry (Fragaria virginiana) slowly creeping and a young little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium).
The image below shows the opening of the rain garden where the runoff enters. Plants are 4 - 5 inches max. Here there's: Virginia pepper (Lepidium virginicum), blue violet (Viola sororia), wood sorrel (Oxalis sp.), nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi), prostrate spurge? (Euphorbia sp.).
Also seen: white clover, creeping cinquefoil, and Bermuda grass.
They don’t want most of the crap people plant trying to be Eco friendly anyways or so the landscape architect told me.
The research of entomologist, Dr. Doug Tallamy, and his team at the University of Delaware have identified 14% of native plants (the keystones) support 90% of butterfly and moth lepidoptera species. The research of horticulturist Jarrod Fowler has shown that 15% to 60% of North American native bee species are pollen specialists who only eat pollen from 40% of native plants.
Dense plantings help keep it at bay. For flowers and grasses, cut in half the recommended plant spacing that you'll find on gardening sites.
I have orange coneflower bordering a pocket prairie, planted one foot apart (center of plant to center of plant). Bermuda grass grows around the edge, but rarely enters it.
Watching them flutter around the milkweed, over to my neighbor's flowers, across the street and back again was beautiful. It was amazing to see one in person. They're much larger than I imagined and very graceful.
Monarch on rose milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.
I dug this out myself, roughly 6 feet in diameter and 4 inches deep. Given how fast everything is growing and self-seeding, I'll be able to expand closer to the street next year.
Southeastern USA Plains. This is the last stop for rainwater before the storm drain leading to the Chesapeake Bay.
This is in the Southeastern USA Plains.
The mature plants (seen on the left side) went to seed in the fall. I broke apart the seed heads over the right side in February.
I never took care of the lawn other than mowing it, so much of this stuff was already here in small amounts. Two years ago, I started dividing up the violets and planting them into the grass. They launch seeds up to 4 feet so they quickly spread, clump and bully the grass. Ants move the seeds around too. Last year, I started dividing and transplanting the nimblewill. Panicled aster and late boneset volunteered which pushed out some more.
There's still plenty of grass closer to my neighbor who treats their lawn. Some I buried in woodchips, the rest I'd like to shade out with edibles and dig out for another rain garden.
If nobody got me, I know Chesapeake Bay Watershed got me 🙏 Can I get an amen?
They're looking for ecoregion photos if you're into photography!
If you want to learn more about your local plants and animals, I recommend iNaturalist or their Seek app.
The above map doesn't include fishing, it's showing land use. This shows fishing:
Here is another one about land animals:
The link in the post body has some tips on how to do so responsibly. Might be worth sharing with your neighbors!