Every year I get an abundance of fallen leaves from the 7 maple trees in my landscape. I have mentioned in several places how I use them in the Autumn to enhance my garden, but I want to gather that information into one place so I can reference it consistently.
Managing Fall leaves is a prominent part of my garden management in October and November. The leaves don't fall all at once, and if I leave them until the trees are bare, it can get overwhelming and also be bad for the lawns. I just say this to mention that this is a task that will be spread out over several weeks and doesn't have to happen all at once.
Step One. In the fall, over the course of several weeks, I gather the fallen leaves from my yard in large black plastic contractor bags. These are the 40-50 gallon bags made of 4-5 mil plastic. These are larger and stronger than the 33 gal leaf bags or kitchen trash bags meant to go into a trash can. I use these stronger bags to last an entire year, sitting outside in the weather.
The leaves are gathered in the grass catcher of my lawn mower, and as a result they are moderately shredded, not whole leaves. The mower may also pick up grass clippings and weedy greens as well. I'm not concerned about the purity of the contents, as long as it isn't sprayed with any chemicals.
I spray water from the hose into the bag, so that the mulched leaves are thoroughly wet. I then tie up the top and leave them to work their decompositional magic. I don't punch holes in the bags or do anything extra, with the intention of keeping this process as simple as possible. I want the contents of the bags to retain moisture that the fungi need to work. Then I store them on the shady side of my garden shed, out of direct sunlight, and simply leave them undisturbed.
The primary purpose of these bags is to create leaf mold, which will function as an effective soil amendment to the vegetable garden beds. The leaves are broken down through fungal decomposition, which is an anaerobic process quite different from the aerobic bacterial process of composting. This leaf mold does not want to be aerated or turned over, like compost will. But the fungi working on the surface of the leaves will begin to break it down into smaller components and eventually turn it into something approximating soil.
This process usually takes 12-18 months, depending on temperature. The longer it works, the better it will be to amend the soil, but typically if you gather leaves in October, by the next October it will be noticeably finer. If you then wait over winter to the following spring, it will be ready to be added directly to the soil to increase fertility and conditioning.
The number of bags I gather depends on what I need to do with the leaves, so we'll return to this question after our discussion.
I use fallen leaves in four ways to enhance my garden and landscape.
One. At any time of the year, I will use fallen leaves as a mulch to be applied to the surface of an existing garden. I continually keep planted beds mulched to retain moisture, suppress weeds, retain heat and keep the surface of the soil from hardening. If I don't have leaves, I will use grass clippings instead.
I will mulch at the base of existing plants, and will completely cover the surface of beds that are unplanted if they are resting over the winter, for example. Before the end of Autumn, I will make sure that each of my garden beds have been treated in this way.
Two. In the Spring, I use this years crop of leaves to create watering Cores, using the core gardening method. Before planting in the spring, I dig a trench down the center of each raised bed and lay down 6-8" of mulched leaves and grass. Then I cover it over with 12" of garden soil for planting. This 8"x8" core of organic matter soaks up and retains water throughout the growing season that the plants roots can access. This process will reduce the overall watering needed for each bed, and will help the plants persist through the dry summer months.
Three. Also in the Spring, I will use the well-rotted leaf mold in the 18-month old bags as a direct soil amendment, working it into the top layers of earth, in the same way that I add 1-2 bags of Black Kow composted manure to each bed. I will typically make this major amendment before planting the heavy summer crops like tomatoes and peppers.
Four. At the end of the growing year, I plan to renovate one of the four garden beds each year. This involve a deep digging process to remove intrusive roots and attempt to push back and break up the hard packed clay another few inches. I work the mowed leaves into this 2" of clay at the bottom of the bed to expand the depth of root space and condition the soil from underneath.
At the end of November, there are always leaves left over, even after all the gathering is done. For the front yard, I move these leaves into the woods, and for the back yard I use the riding mower to mulch them in place.
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