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How to make leafmould

Monty Don showed us a handful of crumbly leafmould last week which he said was from last year's leaves.  My last year's leaves are pretty much as they were when I put them in chickenwire bays.  I watered them when I first put them in but left it to the elements thereafter; they are not covered.  I have just transferred the contents of one to the other to make room for this year's and hoped that there would be some usablel leafmould at the bottom but all I found was compacted wet leaves.  Those at the top were quite dry.  What should I be doing that I'm not?

Posts

  • It can take a long time but you can speed it up a bit by putting them in black bin liners, watering and poking a few holes.  Some types of leaves do take longer to rot down (2 years or more) than others - what type of trees do you have?

    Some info. here:

    http://www.the-compost-gardener.com/composting-leaves.html

     

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • I find it better to bag them personally, wire bins do take longer to rot down in my experience.

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618

    I use builders bags. Its mainly oak leaves. I turn one into the other at the end of year one. It still takes at least two years to rot well to crumbly leafmould.

     

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    I think the black bags are quicker. I had mesh bins in a previous garden and, as the trees got bigger and the quantity of leaves greater, I had to use bags. The bags were more or less rotted within a year, while the bins weren't. Mainly sycamore and lime trees in that garden.

    Keeping them damp helps the process, and if you can shred them, it makes the process quicker too. 

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • I have a chicken wire bin and fork over my leaves about twice a year, takes mine a year to turn to usable leaf mould. I find the top layer is generally un-changed and a little dry but beneath that tends to be good leaf mould.

    Going over with a lawnmower certainly does help but I've only done that once and found it too much effort so now I just wait and see what happens.

  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    My votes with black bags or recycle bins. I used recylce bins for last yrs leaf mulch and gave the contents a good stir every couple of months, it was ready to use approx 12 months later. Three boxes reduced to one. 

    This yr I made a heap on the allotment and they were slow to rot down so I've started adding them to the main compost as a 'brown'.

    Leaf mould is one of life's wonders for me, it can take up to 2yrs to rot down in bags or  a heap yet is gone before the first snow if left under tree's!  

  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,352
    When ever possible I gather my leaves (mainly beech, hazel and apple) by mowing them from the lawn so I get a mix of leaves and grass cutings. I put them in the 1 tonne builders sacks, wet them down a couple of times and cover them up over winter. By spring they have usually started to rot down and, at that stage, I add them in 6" layers to the compost bins. About 10 months after collection they are lovely crumbly compost ready to return to the soil
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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