Ok we are all bored while we are being told to stay home, so lets trade sage gardening advice. You know, that advice you always got/get from people who you consult for help, or from mentors that you have had over the years of your plant addiction that particularly stayed with you.

Here is one of mine. This was imparted to me by a plant mentor whose advice almost always was totally correct. At the time, she was about 20 years older then me, and we were shared lovers of all things heliconia. I was growing over 40 different species and cultivars.

"It's almost impossible to kill a heliconia with overwatering when its planted in the ground planted in the ground, but very PROBABLE that you will overwater and kill a heliconia planted in a container." And this is truth.

Many years ago an older gardening friend had cancer and was not expected to live very long. I went and raked the leaves from her yard in February thinking it would cheer her up. She told me that Ann, another gardening friend, said that you should never rake the leaves in February. I think of that every year when I rake my leaves. Sometimes I rake them in February. My friend died in May.

Did she say why you shouldn't rake leaves in February?

Leaving leaves on the lawn in fall and winter lets them decay into mulch nutrients come spring. We never rake the leaves here, we just let them decay naturally.

Gina1960 said:Leaving leaves on the lawn in fall and winter lets them decay into mulch nutrients come spring. We never rake the leaves here, we just let them decay naturally.

Does it matter what type of leaves? I raked oak leaves two years ago and spread them in a layer in a flower bed, and they are just now starting to decompose.

With perrinial rye, fescue& blue grass, leaving leaves on the lawn kills the grass under the leaf. From articles I read, this is a trees method to clear the ground for its seed. With Bermuda and types of thick grass, often grown in Florida and warm season states, this most likely does not happen.