Got My Leafmould/Leaves Today

It's so unfair - we've got loads of trees at the bottom of our gardens in my lane, but because of the orientation of the houses the wind eddies around in such a way that 90% of the leaves actually finish up in my non-gardening neighbour's garden. I would happily go and rake them up, but every day he's out there with his garden vacuum thingy sucking them up because '..... they're untidy'

 

I just knocked this up from some old fencing for someone I do a bit of gardening for,they used to burn the leaves.
I will fill them both easily.....free soil conditioner....

 

That's perfect Roders, the filled area looks about the size of mine. Free soil conditioner AND potting compost.

Admin: Why dont we have a "drool" smiley?

Steve...

 

The old occupant of our house was obsessive with collecting leaves and has prepared an area about 12' x 6' thats 3' deep with well rotted leaf mould. I didn't think I would use that much other than conditioning the beds over winter. Can it really be used as potting compost? That would save me a fortune!!:yess:

 

Not on its own as it has no nutritive value really, when compared to other mediums, but as part of a compost mix...its the dogs doohdahs!

I've quickly noted some of my mixes down here on GC so you can see how you can use Leaf Mould in compost.

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/composting-recycling/38846-compost-mixes.html#post485725

Steve...

 

Thanks Steve that is really helpful

 

SteveR says that leaf mould has no nutrient value. Why is that? Compost is basically rotted leaves.

 

No it`s not, peat based compost is composted organic matter ( usually sedge grass ) with added nutrients.

 

Quote part of a sentence and it will always look bad or not what the original poster meant.

I said leaf mould had no nutritive value compared to other mediums.

Other mediums being garden compost, farmyard manure etc

Steve...

 

"Compost" per se has a very broad interpretation. It seems to cover just about all forms of growing media except "soil" (and the definitions of "soil" are pretty wide too). The one common thread running through all descriptions of "Compost" is that it comprises in varying proportions of decayed organic material and inorganic material.

Decayed leaves do have some nutrient value - the development of forests are affected by nutrients supplied by leaf litter. However in the horticultural context, leaf litter alone is an insufficent source of nutrients for plants that grow to maturity in a single growing season.

 

Lets face it, Gardeners like Leafmold because it Looks Great:yess::D

 

And smells great Zig.:D