I don't know about you, but it's all about leaves in my garden at the moment. Every day there's another load to scrape out off paths, rake of lawns and fish out of the pond (I choose not to net the pond as I don't mind being forced to peer into it each day). (Look, a photo of me in action!) Most of my leaf burden comes from a line of Tree Preservation Ordered Sycamores. I find this is one of the worst trees for creating leaf mould in a compost bin - use whole leaves and you come back a year later and find them unchanged, all stuck together in airtight, slimy pads. My answer is to get out there with the mower. It's great fun, the mower basket removed, great spumes of leaf fragments shooting out the back, much to the mystification of neighbours.However, I do just leave whole leaves in situ in my 'Woodland Garden' (it's not quite as grand as it sounds!) where the actions of winter and worms on loose leaves work wonders, and there's always a moth caterpillar or two among it should I go rummaging through them.What's your experience with creating leaf mould? Got any tips or favourite leaves for creating leaf mould, or little wild discoveries you've made amongst them.
Hi Quine. Yes, you're right - there isn't much nutrient value in rotted leaves, it's not a fertiliser, but as Wildlife Friendly says, it is all about adding structure. The physical nature of leaf mould - rather crumbly and fibrous - means that it helps open up a tiny network of pores at the same time as holding moisture well. Roots love what it does; soil creatures do too. What to do with it? After about a year it's a great mulch or can be worked into the soil, or after a couple of years use it as a home-made seed compost or mix it into potting composts. I'd say stick at it, you (and your brother in law) are doing good!
Hi Quine
The leaves I gather will break down over time and become brown and crumbly, this is great for digging into your soil. It improves the soils structure and encourages worms etc.
May I ask a really stupid question- we are now storing our leaves separately in a great big leaf bin which my brother in law made for me.
But everything i read says there's no nutrients in the dead leaves. Why am I storing them? What will I be doing with them?
Good to hear from everyone :-)
The image of Taffy in a tug of war with a worm is one to savour - and one for the cartoonists to get busy on ;-)
Interesting to hear the value of Virginia Creeper leaves. And I too have found Oak leaves very slow but at least they don't seem to go mushy. But I've never been faced with the acorn mountain problem - who out there has a solution (and, no, don't say a giant squirrel!).
As for Donald's 60-70 barrowloads, phew, I'm surprised you had time to come online. But tales of birds picking through leaf piles, just as they would in woodlands in the countryside, is a powerful indication of what a good home for wildlife they can be.
What do you do with acorns? I collected three barrows full today and there are still more falling.