Leaving fallen fruit in your yard could be costing you and your plants more than you think – 4 hidden problems caused by neglecting the clean up

Fruit trees growing in an orchard.

This time of year ushers in a wonderful harvest of fruit; figs, pears, quince, persimmons, apples, damsons, and plums start to fall to the ground and await collection by us gardeners to bake and stew into cakes and pies, and jams.

For many, the fall gardening checklist is surprisingly time-consuming, with pruning, pond cleaning, and bulb planting to be done. It can be easy to forget to pick up the fruit that starts to drop, especially as it can't do much harm to leave it a day or two... surely?