Don’t send leaves to the landfill if you can help it. They will break down into something great for the garden. Photos by Doug Oster
Living on four acres in a forest of oak, maple, hickory, sassafras and other trees can be great for three seasons of the year.
Right now…not so much.
Out in the woods it’s not a problem, but on the lawn, garden, driveway and patio the leaves need to be removed.
The forest floor is covered in leaves, they will decompose and feed the soil. As gardeners, we can use those leaves in the same way.
There are lots of ways to compost leaves and in my landscape I deal with them using several techniques.
The easiest is feeding the leaf pile off the edge of a hill around the house. Since 1939, when the house was built, people have been raking leaves off the edge and into the woods. In the summer when I run out of compost I dig through the first few layers of fresh leaves to reveal black, crumbly leaf mold. It’s a great compost which provides everything the plants need.
When the leaves rot down, they become pH neutral, just what we want in the garden.
It takes years for the leaves to break down, but in other areas they are shredded first and will decompose quicker. Everything which once was living will eventually become compost. The smaller the material is at the beginning of the process, the faster they become compost. Shredded leaves also take up less space. Usually ten times less than those left to rot without shredding.
As I feed my three compost bins with fresh green scraps from the kitchen and garden, I always add a few handfuls of shredded leaves kept next to the piles. It’s a great way to cover the food waste and it helps make a balanced compost pile.
It’s important to get leaves off the lawn. Some gardeners can get away with running the lawnmower over a thin layer and letting them rot on the lawn. A thick layer of oak leaves on the other hand will kill the grass and needs to be cleared.
Another important job at my place is to get those leaves off paths and the driveway. Wet leaves are almost as slippery as snow!
Keep as many leaves as you can around the garden and let them work for you.
I’ll be raking and blowing leaves until Christmas and then again in the early spring.
That’s the downside to living in the woods.
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