This is an important ideal in creating a healthy home forest.
Most landholders here tend to maintain a lawn with shrubs & trees on the edges. When the plants are trimmed, they like to have the trimmings hauled away, as piles of sticks & leaves are considered ugly. Then spread chemicals to achieve some fertility.
The outcome of this is a yard full of plants that look okay, but are easily vulnerable to pests and diseases. Therefore pesticides are brought in.
In a natural forest, there is no lawn, and leaf litter & sticks mulch the forest floor.
In my cocoa & tea gardens I drop all the weeds, trim the useful plants, and leave all the trimmings lay in place. I am working to replace any grass covering with mulch. I water young plants from a fish pond, and spread some chicken manure and calcium carbonate once in a while. As a result, production has gone up and cultural problems have reduced.
Under the mulch layer is a thriving community of micro-organisms which support the plants.
