Use them, don't loose them for richer garden soil
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Below are a couple of ways how to reuse this valuable resource in your yard and your garden.
Late autumn is the time when the trees finally lose all their leaves, bar the Oak and the Beech; both which tend to hold on to their dry leaves well through most if not indeed all of winter till spring. It is the time that many gardeners tend to moan about because it means raking leaves and getting rid off them. And here is were many make a bgreat mistake. Don't get rid off them; use them instead.
Autumn leaves are rich in minerals and in organic matter, and if you throw them away every year you will gradually make your soil less fertile. Here are a couple of ways of how to recycle this valuable resource on your yard and in your garden:
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Rake up the leaves but instead of throwing them away, stockpile them next to your compost pile so you can mix them with grass clippings next summer. This grass/leaf mix makes excellent compost. If you have bracken in your area also add that together with the leaves and the year after you will have the finest soil improver you can get.
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If you don't already have a compost pile, you can toss the leaves into a simple circle of wire fencing. Alternatively, if you prefer, bag the leaves, punch a few hole in the tops of the bags, water well, and leave them to decompose. Either way, next year you will have a rich, crumbly leaf mold that is an excellent organic soil additive and especially soil improver.
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Shred the leaves by mowing, or by putting them into a garbage can and chopping them up with a strimmer – the tool that our American cousins call a string trimmer – or, if you have one or can borrow one, actually feed them through a garden shredder. Use this mulch in your garden to enrich the soil and protect overwintering crops such as garlic and others. Also good to keep perennial plants that overwinter from freezing by covering the beds with those shredded leaves.
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Mow the lawn to chop up the leaves and most of them will fall back into the grass and decompose. Let the wind carry the rest into shrub borders where they will protect plant roots from severe cold. Use additional leaves to add additional ground protection for your plants in shrub borders and herbaceous borders.
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Use leaves as a cover also for clamps in which you may be storing your roots crops such as potatoes, carrots and others. The leaves give an additional blanket and while they decay add warmth.
Do not waste your leaves, that is the fist rule here.
© 2010
