What to do with all of those leaves?
Once the leaves start to fall lower the mowing height on your mower to mow over the leaves. We will even cross cut to make sure the leaves are finally mulched. Of course that works for awhile until all of the trees start to drop their leaves. It is hard to keep up but we continue to gather, rake or blow the leaves into the yard and start mowing over them creating a fine leaf mulch. After mowing over the leaves several times we will bag them and start placing them on top of garden beds, creating a “mulched-leaf blanket”.
As you can see in the picture, I have placed the "leaf" mulch around the plants in the garden. The leaves will have the opportunity to break down over the winter creating rich compost. Next spring when planting time arrives, I will keep the leaves in the garden planting around them and even mixing them with new topsoil and compost. This will help to make the soil more suitable for planting. Unfortunately we live in an area where there is a high level of clay in the soil. If you continue to add compost and mulched leaves, you will eventually end up with soil that is just right for planting. A good thing for the garden, a great thing for the environment!
Comment
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Comment by Leslie Bradshaw Tillman on November 8, 2011 at 12:01pm
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I know this post is old Shelley but It's that time of year again. I like your idea and it looks nice too. We gather and shred ours with a small chippe/ shredder and pile them in an area that we enclosed on three sides with
long logs. Mr. Spouse adds topsoil to it and turns it occasionally with the backhoe but it is in mostly shade and decomposes slowly. I wanted to start doing it so we could add it to the vegetable garden and my flower
beds. I have been adding it to my flower beds but Mr. Spouse thinks it will only make our already acidy soil even more acidic. I say we can add more lime but that we need to add all the organic matter we can to the area
that we cleared and have been gardening in for two years now. Nothing seems to thrive in it...just live and It seems like it's just soil with no good stuff in it. One end is sandy and the other drains slowly. The plants grow
slowly, sometimes stunted looking and should produce more than they have. I know we should have soil tests done but do you agree that adding shredded, partially composted leaves will only improve the soil? And even
newly shredded leaves?
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Comment by Kim on February 9, 2010 at 6:54pm -
Here is a way for leaves:
Plastic Bag Composting
Plastic bag composting is perhaps the simplest of all composting methods requiring no structure other than a black plastic garbage bag.
The bags should be 30 to 40 gallon in size and at least 3 ml. in thickness. This size bag should hold approximately 3 bushels of organic materials.
For best decomposition, try to place a combination of both brown and green organic materials in the bag. To each bag add 1 cup of ammonium nitrate and about 1/4 cup of hydrated lime (in this case lime is used to counteract the acidity that will occur underanaerobic conditions within the bag). Then add about a quart of water, close the bag tightly and set it aside for six months to a year. You should not have to turn the mixture or add water after closing the bag. If possible, set bags in a sunny spot where they can absorb heat. In the winter, move bags to a heated garage or basement.
Plastic bag composting is convenient, but, like pit composting, the process occurs mainly under anaerobic conditions and much slowerthan composting in well-ventilated structures
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Comment by Marianna on January 16, 2010 at 7:17pm -
Shelley -- I would love to have some of those bagged leaves for my arrid, alkaline yard -- what a treat that would be -- we have no trees in our subdivision because of the alkaline. Everything I plant either dies or looks very poor. They say it's impossible to get rid of the alkaline and advise raised gardens. Well, that might sound good, but I wanted to plant right in the ground, not have to do the raisesd beds. I did not know your leaf raking in KC goes so late, as I'm used to the northeast and midwest (been gone from there for ages, but I remember). We had all our leaves raked by the end of Ocober or early November at the latest. Well, anyway, glad you are using the downed leaves -- and I hope others follow suit. Maybe you could write a Letter to the Editor at your major "daily", hoping to educate some of the people there. Plastic bags have become a real curse on the environment.
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