I make leaf mould in builders bags. It rains on it and it sinks to about half in a year. I then turn one into another and leave for another year. After three years it is like peat.
Making leaf mould just takes years and space. I tried but now I just end up adding leaves to the regular compost bins.
——— a question: I have lots of plants with bad mildew. I assuming that if I add these to regular compost bins the pores won’t stay about till next year. Like blight, they don’t stay in the soil.. Do you compost blighted and mildewed material?
I'm in the process of emptying my second leaf bag (builders' supply bulk bags, kept outside.) This time last year I had sieved both and spread it on borders or put it into plastic dustbins for storage. This year I am behind with jobs but have found the leaves are less broken down, yet too wet to sieve. I think the dry summer contributed to the former, and the recent heavy rains to the latter. I've managed to sieve and use some, but most has gone into two bulk bags under cover to rot down further and dry out. Leaves don't require heat to decompose @Uff, I think it's more of a slow fungal decay. After a year it's useable but after two or three it's black gold! The moisture content is important. Too dry and nothing happens, but too wet can be a bad thing. Maybe this year's weather affected yours too. I add a lot to my compost bin, but made the mistake last autumn of not giving it a good enough mix as I went along. This resulted in impermeable layers of leaves which impeded drainage in the bins. All my leaves are mown up by the way, even from gravel paths, so are chopped up by the mower. Edited to add; I would agree with @Lizzie27 about bagging it up if you need it emptying this autumn. Tied up in old compost bags and kept under cover or in a sheltered spot it will carry on turning into leaf mould, as long as it's damp when you put it in. Last winter I sieved some bags of mown leaves that were five years old. It fell through the sieve, cool and silky!
Making leaf mould just takes years and space. I tried but now I just end up adding leaves to the regular compost bins.
That's what I've done too. But a couple of years ago I purposely collected a load of beech leaves from a road in town and added those to my heap only to find they were the only things that hadn't composted by the following year.
I'm upscaling my composting effort this year (with the aim of needing to buy very little bagged compost) but I don't think leaves will feature in the mix.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I make leaf mould in builders bags. It rains on it and it sinks to about half in a year. I then turn one into another and leave for another year. After three years it is like peat.
Snap! @fidgetbones The bags sit nice and perky when first filled, but the middle-aged spread after a year has to be seen to be believed, don't you think? I'm hoping to add two more next year so that I can leave it for two years as you do.
Thanks for the info folks. Very useful. I'll leave the leaf compost heap to do its own thing then but this years leaves I'll chop up and add as brown stuff to the herbaceous waste. I'm learning folks.
@Uff, it also depends on what leaves you are collecting. Small fine leaves like birch rot down quicker than the bigger, thicker ones like the Norwegian maple that overhangs our garden. I don't think oak leaves do well either but I could be wrong. Evergreen leaves are usually a no-no. Mowing the leaves helps enormously as does adding layers of grass cuttings occasionally.
As ever, time helps with most things, including leaf mould!
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a question: I have lots of plants with bad mildew. I assuming that if I add these to regular compost bins the pores won’t stay about till next year. Like blight, they don’t stay in the soil.. Do you compost blighted and mildewed material?
This time last year I had sieved both and spread it on borders or put it into plastic dustbins for storage.
This year I am behind with jobs but have found the leaves are less broken down, yet too wet to sieve. I think the dry summer contributed to the former, and the recent heavy rains to the latter. I've managed to sieve and use some, but most has gone into two bulk bags under cover to rot down further and dry out.
Leaves don't require heat to decompose @Uff, I think it's more of a slow fungal decay. After a year it's useable but after two or three it's black gold!
The moisture content is important. Too dry and nothing happens, but too wet can be a bad thing.
Maybe this year's weather affected yours too.
I add a lot to my compost bin, but made the mistake last autumn of not giving it a good enough mix as I went along. This resulted in impermeable layers of leaves which impeded drainage in the bins.
All my leaves are mown up by the way, even from gravel paths, so are chopped up by the mower.
Edited to add;
I would agree with @Lizzie27 about bagging it up if you need it emptying this autumn. Tied up in old compost bags and kept under cover or in a sheltered spot it will carry on turning into leaf mould, as long as it's damp when you put it in.
Last winter I sieved some bags of mown leaves that were five years old. It fell through the sieve, cool and silky!
I'm upscaling my composting effort this year (with the aim of needing to buy very little bagged compost) but I don't think leaves will feature in the mix.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
The bags sit nice and perky when first filled, but the middle-aged spread after a year has to be seen to be believed, don't you think?
I'm hoping to add two more next year so that I can leave it for two years as you do.
As ever, time helps with most things, including leaf mould!