Making Leaf Mould

Added some more shredded leaves with a hint of grass clippings to mine followed with some straw. Mines a cross between leafmold and compost this year as i dont have the patience to wait 2 years for leafmold again.

Pile is still producing a lot of heat, turning it once a week. Its rotting down quick. A bit of well sessoned ie stinking comfrey juice was added the other day too.

 

As a newbie to leaf collection can I please have some tips ?
Some background:-
I live on a street, my leaves are collected from the path and road
I've scooped up all the leaves and they are now in black bin bags
I don't have an area set aside for leaf mould, my garden is modest.
I think I've read I should jab with the fork and leave it to it?
Thanks for any tips in advance

 

Yep, that'll do As they rot down put them all in together, as we will do as the dumpy bags rot down

 

Make sure the leaves are moist when put in the bags. Dont allow them to dry out.

 

Collecting up the leaves now is so much simpler. Having worked in the ancient woodlands in SE London/Kent. Autmn heralded at least two months leaf raking, gardening staff, labourers and keepers all got stuck in. A couple of real tractors, not these giant toys of today. No vacs or blowers simply wooden ash rakes. I often visit this wonderful arae and see the banks, mounds etc of now grassy nature. If only local gardeners knew, what these banks etc actually were made of. This is going back forty plus years.

Might I suggest to my gardening friends here. If possible, forget bagging up the leaves. As with composting, let the air and elements get to work. Let the worms and bugs etc play their part.

If possible be a bit selective in what leaves you, well for better of another prhase...compost together. The fastest leaves for composting....turning into leaf mould are. Oak, Hawthorne, Birch and many of the general garden shrubs and smaller trees such as fruit trees and ornamentals. The perhaps broarder leaved types, the maples and of course the laurals an such-loke. These take ages to break down. Ilex, 'hells bells' do they ever rot down? In the garden or on the plot, simplest and perhaps the best is. Dig them in. This way, waste not , want not. All rotting, decaying vegitation provide liqiud residue. This can at times be of more value than the bulky fiberous material.

 

I have the luxury or being able to do just this,having plenty of space to store mounds of leaves for minimum 2 years in an out of the way and importantly sheltered from the wind spot as otherwise you are repeating the process!
If you don't have lots of spare space I think it's a much better idea to bag the leaves up making sure they are wet. Seal the bags and put them say under a hedge out of the way. This method actually speeds the decomposing. As for separating the leaves, maybe in an ideal world but to separate them all up especially if wet is the kind of job whereby I would loose the will to live. Luckily my Holly trees are not close to my other trees and their leaves don't fly about and get mixed with all the other types. Holly prunings get shredded and put on the ordinary compost. Laurel well they are just a pain in the you know what but by leaving my mounds for 3 years that is usually enough for even them to degrade down.

 

I get 12, one ton builders' bags full of leaves from a local farmer every autumn. (I do look after him, though. I bought him a long-handled leaf grabber recently)

In the Spring and all through the summer I use the fresh leaf mould as a mulch to smother weeds and improve the soil. By November, a four or six inch layer of mulch will have disappeared into the soil. (I blame those worms, you know!)

It's extraordinary how the leaf mulch disappears through the year.

 

Crest Leaf Grabber.

 

Only got 2 more empty dumpy bags to go

Arranged the full ones so we can pile the rest of the leaves in the middle



Won't be long until the gnomes move in now to complete the process

 

Lots of leaves to collect, my front is a ....