Long-held garden-maintenance practices are evolving as we learn more about their impact on ecology, so what’s “best practice” now in caring for our yards?
In March 2025, Maryland’s state entomologist, Max Ferlauto, and Karin T. Burghardt, an ecologist and associate professor at the University of Maryland, published results of two years of research about the impacts of fall leaf removal—offering hard numbers to back up the Cleanup 2.0 call to “leave the leaves” we’ve heard in recent years.
This webinar, “The Science Behind Leaving Your Leaves (and More Garden-Care Insights),” will expand on the research results, and also go into depth on topics such as yard biodiversity and soil health. Max has studied additional factors in the “leave the leaves” question—such as alternative planting and management strategies beyond fall-cleanup tactics, and even show us how our yard-biodiversity planning efforts can be tied to the larger conservation goals of preserving rare species and habitats.
This class is part of a series of three Winter Classes. Buy all 3 for $75 here.
Presenter Bio:
Max Ferlauto, the State Entomologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources since November 2023, earned his doctorate degree in entomology from the University of Maryland. In March 2025, with Karin Burghardt of the University of Maryland, he published much-heralded research on the impacts of leaf removal resulting from their two-year study in 20 residential suburban Maryland yards, finally putting hard numbers to the effects of one of our highest-impact garden practices: fall cleanup.