Leaf mould.

Hi all,

I have spent a couple of hours today clearing the leaves from next doors Magnolia that are in my garden. I have put them through the mower, but a lot are still whole. Should I put them through agains? As I have read that they take ages to decay. Tomorrow I will make a cage behind the shed an clear the Poplar and Oak leaves from the back garden and next door will be giving me there's too. Will they be ok to put on with the Magnolia leaves?

Rusty.

 

Sounds like a good idea having a leaf bin, Rusty. If you have space to make two, you could leave this year's to rot down and still have a bin ready for next year's. Thinking long term

 

Good idea. I've got room for 2, so I will do that.

Rusty

 

They take ages to decay ... putting them through the mower speeds that up a bit. I don't think it worth doing it again, but if its not much bother it would probably help ... but it only makes a bit of difference, they still won't be ready to use until next Autumn at best, and maybe not until the year after. But the pile will have shrunk to much smaller than the original, so by next year, if not ready, you would be able to move it into a much smaller "container".

 

Make up a mixture of lukewarm water, sugar and lemon juice. Leave it (excuse the pun) till its frothy.

Sprinkle it over the pile

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will leave the Magnolia leaves in bags for a year or two and just put the Poplar and Oak in the leaf bin. I can always use the Magnolia as mulch if they are taking too long.

Rusty.

 

Does it speed up the breaking down of the leaves? I'm wonder how if so.

I've only recently chucked my leaves in the compost bin along with the lawn clippings. I don't have room for a leaf mould bin at the moment and the bin bag method never really worked for me.

 

Tried a bucket of it last year, mind you I did have the bucket in the warm. It was rotted by spring.

The leafmold process is fungal, yeast is a fungus.

 

Lemon Juice ??

 

Yeast likes an acidic environment, it's a basic starter culture to get the yeast multiplying. Once its going it'll be looking for nutrient, i.e. Leaves, to eat.

 

I've only recently chucked my leaves in the compost bin along with the lawn clippings. I don't have room for a leaf mould bin at the moment and the bin bag method never really worked for me.[/quote

I'm lucky having huge amounts of space and huge amounts of leaves which equals hardly ever having to buy compost.I just pile the leaves up and leave them for 2 years by which time they have broken down. However I did once collect a whole load of leaves in black bags meaning to put these on the pile, forgot and found the bags 2 or maybe 3 years later with superb compost inside them Maybe you just didn't wait long enough or perhaps the leaves were very dry when collected?

 

I have been using the fallen leaves in the garden as a mulch for some of my more tender/borderline plants

 

Good point Sirius, I had a Runner bean survive overwinter as the roots were covered in leaves.

 

Made leaf bin and put the leaves next door had mown up this morning. My neighbour gave me a tonne bag about 3/4 full. With what I will mow up out of my own garden, which will be probable twice as much as next door, I think the council can have the Magnolua leaves.

Rusty

 

I built a cage with wire netting for my leaf mould. It does a great job