Every year it's the same thing, the neighbors stuff their leaves into bags and set them out at the curb to be picked up and taken to the municipal compost pile. This year, in a slight twist, by claiming to be environmentally responsible, the village has discontinued free leaf bags (they're having budget problems). So we've all had to buy the bags this year, despite the village's suggestion that residents compost their fallen leaves or put them in the Big Green Monster.I've bought leaf bags too, but only to store some of the leaves to use as winter mulch. I won't give away my precious leaves, oh no. While many gardeners wax poetically about the wonders of compost, I am enamoured of leaf mold.
Compost, which is pretty much anything that can rot, is the thing for feeding plants, but for improving the condition of soil, leaf mold, which is solely rotted leaves, is the best. I've posted about how my soil develops gaping cracks every summer, regardless of the amount of rainfall. Leaf mold is my weapon of choice against the clay that causes the cracks. It's also what native woodland plants want to grow in.
Making leaf mold is easy. If your leaves are small, thin, or not plentiful, leaving them where they fall in the garden is a good way to let nature make leaf mold. If, as in my garden, the leaves are large, thick or smothering the plants, the leaves should be removed, shredded and then returned.
For leaves fallen on the lawn or when there are too many to leave in the garden, the patient/lazy way to make leaf mold is just to pile up fallen leaves in an out of the way corner and let them rot for a couple of years. (While storing them in black plastic bags has been recommended, that's not an eco-friendly way to do it, as you end up with plastic bags that can't be reused.) That's too slow for me, and, besides, I'd run out of places to store them all within a year. Instead, I shred the leaves, either with the lawn mower or a leaf blower/vac set on vacuum mode (a chipper shredder would be ideal, hint, hint), then put the shredded leaves in a bin.
Depending on the weather, I can have usable leaf mold in a couple of months.
Depending on the weather, I can have usable leaf mold in a couple of months. The bin is full to the brim in autumn, but by the end of winter, it has already broken down quite a bit. Then, as I remove the shredded leaf-mulch I've put down for winter protection, I put it in the leaf mold bin. The stuff on the bottom from the previous autumn is ready for use in the spring in beds and in container plantings, and by midsummer, much of what I added in spring is ready also. The last of the finished product in autumn is used to cover Sanguinaria, which invariable pushes itself up out of the ground, and as a top dressing over dormant spring ephemerals.
Not bad for something that grows on trees.
Not bad for something that grows on trees.
27 comments:
Why do you remove the mulch you put down for winter protection? Why not leave it in place, or just scootch it around where it won't be in the way? That sounds like a lot of extra work.
Also, I have never seen my sanguinaria do that. Maybe I haven't looked.
P.S. Did the mailman bring you a small package recently?
I am worn out with seemingly constant leaf sweeping but keep telling myself that the reward is worth all the work :)
We save all our leaves as well, but as we belong to the lazy/patient crowd, we have two bins. This way, one is always ready to use.
And you can go ahead and call me crazy, but I LOVE that smell of fresh leaf mould. :)
Since I've been planting trees in the couple of years since moving into my treeless lot, I'm looking forward to having leaf mold eventually - right now there aren't that many leaves off the baby trees. So thanks for the reminder on how to make it!
I agree MMD...nothing beats leaf mold. But right this minute...I wish it was all taken care of...It's just the beginning and the oaks haven't dropped their leaves yet! I am corralling them in the wayback this year. gail
Kathy - the leaves I remove are the ones I use piled up in wire cages around the Hydrangea macrophyllas & the Tree Peony. The others just on the beds stay. And yes, I got it in the mail today. Thanks!
Anna - that sounds like my husband, complaining about having to "harvest" the leaves, although this year I seem to be doing all the leaf harvesting by myself.
Deborah - whatever works for you. I wish I had room for 2 bins & 3 compost bins.
Blackswamp Girl - it does smell good. So, no, I won't call you crazy.
VW - go drive around and steal leaf bags off the curb in neighborhoods with mature trees. ;^)
Another leaf mold fan here! I always just let the leaves fall where they may, to add fuel for next year's garden.
I have lots of leaves and I chop them up with the mower. Not a difficult job and the results are great. Nice mulch that goes into the soil.
I've been gardening all these years, and don't think I knew exactly what leaf mold was. What I do, is have the neighbor dump theirs, and we dump ours on the compost piles, and then when I turn the compost in the spring, I go ahead and put the partially decomposed leaves on the ground along with any compost that may be finished. Sometimes, it's just the leaves. So, is that leaf mold?
I enjoyed this post!
I have piles of leaves near the compost that will hopefully turn into leaf mold and/or be added to the compost bin next year when I need brown material. Unfortunately I cannot save all the leaves from those curbside bags, which are popular with Tech Support around here!
Hmmm. Great post and it's giving me "vibes!" ha. I didn't do it this year, but normally I shred my leaves and put them down over all the beds first - before I add the whole-leaf mulch protection. In the Spring, I rake off the whole leaves, but attempt to leave the shredded... which has nearly disappeared anyway. Yep! Guess I've been inadvertantly doing approximately the same thing with my beds... but am very interested in making the leave pile. :-)
I'm always a little worried that the red leaves of the Liquidambar will inhibit growth of other plants. So I compost the yellow leaves of other trees, and put the red into the city garden waste. Maybe I shouldn't worry, but...Well, at least the city will make compost of it, and I hope they have more of a mix.
Hi MMD, that shot of the ready to use leaf mold is just plain knock your socks off gorgeous. I would love to be able to use the leaves our neighborhood piles down at the street but lack the equipment. Our city has a giant vacumning truck that sucks them all up and has a giant pile of mulch for people to use for free. But one needs a truck to get it. No wonder your woodland plants are so happy with your kind treatment to their soil. :-)
Frances
This time of year I often pick up bagged leaves set out at the curb. My motto: you can never have too much. Some I add to the garden and some is stored in the barn to use as mulch next year.
Marnie
Sweet Bay - I wish I could leave mine. It looks better if you don't have to disturb them.
Lisa - I tried using the mower to chop them up, but it was just as much work as the leaf vac to chop up the Norway Maple leaves, as I learned a week ago.
Sue - leaves added to compost are just compost. If it's nothing but decomposed leaves, then it's leaf mold. So I guess the short answer is no.
ROR - Tech Support?
Shady - from the photos on your recent posts, it looks like you have mostly Oak leaves, which are the best for winter mulch, so you probably don't need to shred them. But it is nice to have a pile to go to for a good supply of leaf mold in the middle of summer.
Town Mouse - I hadn't heard that Liquidamber leaves could cause a problem, but then I've never grown one. I grind up red leaves of Dogwoods and Continus & they all end up the same.
Frances - You would look a little funny with a leaf vac in front of the neighbors' houses.
Marnie - you can't have too much if you're lucky enough to have a barn. I don't take the neighbors' bags because I barely have room for all of mine.
There are few things more luscious than leaf mold, at least in the garden. The most highly prized compost for sale in the Houston area is a leaf mold compost! Our Master Gardeners buy it in bulk and bag it for plant sales. We always sell out.
We shred the leaves with the mower and pour them directly onto the gardens. I would store it separately until it partially decomposes but space is at a real premium. It's the great tragedy of my life that we don't have enough leaves to cover all of the gardens, so I rotate from year to year. It also makes the gardens look so gorgeous going into winter, filled with red and yellow fluff!
Cindy - I've read that the best leaf mold is homemade, as it is loaded with beneficial fungi & microorganisms. But I've never analyzed it too closely.
Diane - I'm sure my neighbors would be more than happy to share some of theirs. ;^)
I get pretty lazy, MMD, and don't bother with shredding the leaves. But I have plenty of space to hide rotting leaves for awhile so I can wait. While leaf-burning is banned in our town, some people still get away with it. I've always thought what a waste that is!
I harvest most of my leaves from neighbors who rake and bag. Mine all blow away! I just interviewed the curator at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the NYBG and he says they lay down chopped leaves as a mulch twice during the growing season for weed control and soil improvement.
That is great stuff! I would be sorely tempted to confiscate other folks leaves for my garden. It baffles me that people choose to get rid of leaves. Why not just mow them down really well if you don't want them? Good for those opportunistic gardeners though!
We love leaf mold around here and "vacuum" it up from both our neighbors across the street. I have agonized and agonized about how to store it so it works best, and in spite of the fact that I know it is not really "eco-friendly" we do store the leaves we collect in the black plastic garbage bags. I console myself with the knowledge that the only plastic other than those bags that goes into our trash here at the Havens is the one and sometimes two 13 gallon white kitchen trash bags that go into our garbage cart.
The thing is, I have found that when I stack my black bags full of the wonderful grass/leaf mix that comes out of the lawnmower over the winter, in the spring I find that they have done 90% of the work of changing themselves into wonderful leaf mold. I do have the luxury of 2 acres, and we generally stack the bags out behind the vegetable garden fence, so there is no eyesore of black bags for anyone to look at. The plastic keeps the leaves at exactly the right moisture level. When I stack them I poke them with the pitchfork to make sure they stay aerobic, and every once in a while I flip the bags over. They are also in nice neat packages when they are ready to move, just load a few bags on the wheel barrow and spread the mulch.
But you are so right. There is nothing like leaf mold. I love the smell too. Call me crazy.
Leaf mould is wonderful stuff.
Especially that wonderful smell: earth, worms and a little essence of puppy's paws!
Rose - I don't get these people who think the only thing to be done with leaves is burning. It's a hot issue in a nearby community.
CW - I'm glad to hear I'm in good company with the 2x per year application of leafy mulch.
Dave - especially now that someone has done a study showing that mulched leaves left on a lawn decreases weeds.
HMH - if it works for you, that's great. I decided I didn't like the plastic bags.
James A-S - I'll have to borrow the neighbors' dog for that puppy paw essence. He'd be happy to help.
I like the municipal composting program because I think it raises awareness about compost and gets more people to use it rather than chemical ferts. But I do use some of my abundance of leaves for compost and leaf mold.
EAL - Every municipality should have a compost facility. There's no reason for all these leaves to go to a landfill. I used to get compost from my village's facility when my garden was new & I didn't have my own supply yet.
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