Leaf Mould

Does anyone know if you need to water leaf mould? I have had conflicting advice.

Amy

 

Amy
This makes excellent soil improver. My system:-
Use a rotary mower to collect it as this will chop leaves into small pieces to help decomposition. Put it into black bin bags, tie the tops and punch a few dozen holes in the side to allow oxygen in. Ensure it is moist and do not let it dry out. One year should be sufficient with most leaves but two years may be required for deciduous tree leaves.
Half way through the decomposting period empty leaves into a pile, mix thoroughly and return to the bags.
This may sound laborious but it gives wonderful results and works for me.
Merely putting leaves into a compost bin without chopping up often results in a thick wet block of useless crud !
Give it a try but be patient.
Sonsalis

 

Thank you

 

Hi , I have A LOT of leaves! so would take forever to bag them, altho I do think Sonsalis' advice was good. I leave the leaves (only leaves) in a huge pile behind a hedge so they don't all blow about. I leave them for usually 18 months and then have a look to see what they are like. The bottom of the heep is normally lovely stuff by then the top half not ready, expect if I had the time/energy and turned them after a year the whole pile would be "ready". I don't water the piles but then I do live in a part of the world which is quite wet. Unless you are in a hurry to use/live somewhere very dry I don't think you'd need to bother. I use tonnes of the stuff and it saves a fortune never buying potting compost unless the acidity of the leaf mould doesn't suit. Well worth the effort of collecting the leaves.

 

Its a slow process, so we don't go to a lot of trouble to try to speed it up. Some enclosures with chicken wire on three sides, fill from the front. Once they get damp from rain etc. they stick together.

By next year its shrunk down enough that next year's crop can do on top. After a couple of years this isn't possible so first job of the Autumn is to scrape off the "loose" material at the top, dig out the "mature" material at the bottom, put the loose back and then the new leaves can go in.

Leaf mould is supposed to be very good for nursery beds of tree seedlings - because the bugs that break down the leaves also stimulate root growth in the seedlings - just in case you happen to be making a tree seedling nursery bed! otherwise anywhere you want to improve the soil structure.

I'm thinking about using it in the marginal beds around the pond. I stupidly put muck on them one year and after the first rain the pond went tea coloured and made the fish very unhappy!

 

I've used the black bin bag method for some years and find it necessary to open the bags and sprinkle the leaves with water every couple of months. Otherwise. the outer leaves in the bags dry out.

These days, you also have to make sure that your bin bags are NOT bio-degradable or else they tend to come apart when you lift the full sacks later in the year! Leaf mould seems particularly dense and very heavy to lift. Or maybe I'm just getting old(er).....

As the others have said, making leaf mould is a slow process but rather satisfying.

These days, the leaves that I gather are mostly beech which are supposed to be excellent for composting. They're OK but they don't seem to degrade as fast at the leaves from a large old apple tree that I had in a previous garden.

 

By the time I've raked up all the fallen leaves I've got leaves, grass, twigs and anything else that was lying around. Everything goes in to a one ton builders bag, then I forget about it for two years. I just have to remember to fill it in situ because there's no way to move it once it's full :dh:. I don't bother to keep it wet, the rain does that for me.

 

Leaf mould is wonderful stuff and it's free......I manage to get a large heap ready every year,I have two heaps, it does need watering and turning regularly.
I do tend to throw everything else in with it that comes along,so it's not 100% leaf mould.

You can never have to much of the stuff.....:autlv::autlv::autlv::autlv:

 

I followed Toby Bucklands instructions, and made a 1mtr sq pen with chicken wire and canes.

We filled it up in one raking!

His advice was that it would be ready in one year. Will chicken poo speed it up?

 

Hey Victoria,

Leaf mold is a fungal process as opposed to the bacterial process of a compost heap, so a high nitrogen thinger like chicken poo might make the heap too hot for the fungus, which is needed to break down the lignins in the leaves.

at a guess.

 

If you are in Uk, then it will be soaking and the answer is no, not at the moment, but generally :yez: All compost needs water and oxygen for the bacteria and other life forms to do their stuff.

It also depends on how you store it. If no water gets in it will dry and stop rotting, just like with normal compost. just keep it nice a damp and it should be ready to put round your trees and shrubs for next year.

 

Hi,
I've just been out bagging leaves around the ambulance station.
Many of the leaves are sycamore which appear to have black spots like you see on roses. Are these ok to compost?
Should i avoid using compost from this bag near any acers?

Cheers
D