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Remove leaves from beds?
Lost in Suffolk
Posts: 20
in Plants
Hi, novice gardener here. Should I remove masses of dead leaves from beds? There are lots of spring bulbs coming up underneath. Many thank, as ever!
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Posts
Personally, yes I would.
Hi from Norfolk
Spring bulbs will be happy pushing their way up through the leaves (just as snowdrops and bluebells etc do 'in the wild'). However if you've got perennial plants waking up and beginning to grow I'd just scrape leaves gently away from them, then once the soil warms up a bit and the worms wake up they'll drag the leaves down below the surface where they'll decompose and improve your soil.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you so much! Spent a glorious hour collecting leaves ? and only scratched the surface but it’s wonderful to see all the bulbs coming up, Spring is coming! Filled garden bin to bursting. Also seen that my Hellebores are flowering!
How do you remove the leaves when the bed is covered with bark?? Would a leaf blower just blow the bark too? Thanks
Oooh, don't put them in the bin ... compost them or make leaf mould ... it's more valuable than gold dust to a gardener ... you just need some bin bags and an out of the way corner
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/maintain-the-garden/how-to-make-leaf-mould/
My hellebores are flowering too ..... aren't they beautiful
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Don't know I'm afraid ... that's one of the reasons I don't use bark ... it's more trouble than it's worth for my style of gardening.
I do use composted bark as a mulch, but that's different.
Last edited: 17 February 2018 15:05:27
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Sorry to butt into your thread, LiS
but I just realised that in all my years of gardening, I'd never thought about what worms eat! -googled it. Dead leaves - 
doh!
Crumbs, don’t tell me that! Now I’m feeling guilty about the worms!! ?
Last edited: 17 February 2018 15:52:45
Have to pass on that I'm afraid
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With regard to worms taking down the leaves, I think the ones in my garden must be a load of wimps. The leaves don't seem to disappear at all, so this time of year I end up bagging them up.