As all of the above, except that I do try to use some of the leaves to make "proper" mould, for my special woodland plants and the Meconopsis which seem to like it.
This does seem to take at least 2 years, sometimes 3, so mostly just do as others on here.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
I find all sorts of insects and snails in the bin where I put my leaf mould and wonder where have they come from and how do they survive.. Like the pond creatures they seem to just arrive
I have quite a lot of fallen leafs in the garden and last weekend, I just collected them and left them in the flower border. I did the same last year and noticed by June, the leafs were almost not noticeable.
I guess they have been broken down into soil rather than blown away by wind?
I leave the fallen leaves on my woodland border PageZ but on more ornamental flower borders, I find deep piles of leaves can make nice hidey homes for slugs and snails.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
I make leaf mould every year. I only have a small garden so am very picky about the leaves I collect! There is a fantastic old lime tree and those leaves break down very easily I find, within a year. I put them in black bin bags, punch some holes in them and make sure they are wet or at least somewhere where they will get rained on. After a while, when they have noticeably reduced in volume, I empty them into two old bins, which are effectively giant wormeries and the worms break them down into sticky, crumbly "black gold" in no time. I sieve the leaf mould and return most of the worms to the bins. There are lots of other trees around, and most of their leaves seem to end up in my garden. Not having a shredder or a mower, I don't bother with London Plane leaves - they are huge and like wooden dinner plates and take years to break down - I just put those out for the council to collect and process and burn some for woodash which goes on the border or in the compost bin. Similarly, I get rid of most of the sycamore leaves, as I find they just go slimy. I can put up with the bags stacked in various corners around the garden in the winter. From spring, I gradually process them and spread the leaf mould on the borders in the summer to help reduce watering. It is lovely stuff. Usually by the time the first leaves start to fall - at the end of August - I have processed the previous year's harvest and it all starts again! It has really improved the quality of my soil, which was sick and yellow when I took on my garden and is now black and full of life. It's definitely worth doing.
Hi Esspee, read your post with interest . I only started collecting leaves last year to make leaf mould and put them in bin bags just like you did. Had a look at it the other day and was a bit disappointed at how it looked, but now I realise it takes a couple of years to look anything like soil we are looking for . Sorry cant be of any help but will follow your thread just in case you get some good info which would help us both . Good luck.
Got 7 bags last year that have gone flat and slimey (I slip if I try to walk over them so they are THAT slimey!). Did the pricking the bag and wetting off the leaves before tying up the bag thing and this is where they are. I opened one and it was deffo slimey so used it as mulch on the clematis. I've left the rest to rot off more. I've also collected another 7 bags from this year and put them at the other end of the shed although you can tell the difference in the years' collections no problem.
I too am following this thread with interest, thanks for raising the issue.
I make proper leaf mould with leaves piled into a wire container which works much better than bags. I don't usually chop them up, I just rake them into piles and collect them. It takes longer than the other methods to rot down and I would shred them if I could to help them along. However, it makes the most wonderful compost - makes me feel like a real gardener!
Last week i opened two old compost bags which i'd filled with leaves from last winter. I originally had them stored in a ramshackle mesh & wood bin but got fed up with the thing & just plonked the relatively uncomposted contents into a couple of old compost bags. Having lost interest (forgive me, it was my 1st year here & was up to my neck propogating seeds, building a pond etc) i dumped the two into a metal incinerator and that sat happily in a shady zone far from the house.
Well, i had a nice surprise: the mould seemed to have been produced, just a small portion of yet to be fully broken down clumps within it, but I reckon a further year would have made the finer grade. I'm over the moon with it; the whole lot got quickly worked into the surface of some new beds.
i wonder if my accidental three phased approach helps? (I.E. open bin 1st, bags 2nd, metal bin 3rd)
Posts
As all of the above, except that I do try to use some of the leaves to make "proper" mould, for my special woodland plants and the Meconopsis which seem to like it.
This does seem to take at least 2 years, sometimes 3, so mostly just do as others on here.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I find all sorts of insects and snails in the bin where I put my leaf mould and wonder where have they come from and how do they survive.. Like the pond creatures they seem to just arrive
Hi All!
I have quite a lot of fallen leafs in the garden and last weekend, I just collected them and left them in the flower border. I did the same last year and noticed by June, the leafs were almost not noticeable.
I guess they have been broken down into soil rather than blown away by wind?
I leave the fallen leaves on my woodland border PageZ but on more ornamental flower borders, I find deep piles of leaves can make nice hidey homes for slugs and snails.
I make leaf mould every year. I only have a small garden so am very picky about the leaves I collect! There is a fantastic old lime tree and those leaves break down very easily I find, within a year. I put them in black bin bags, punch some holes in them and make sure they are wet or at least somewhere where they will get rained on. After a while, when they have noticeably reduced in volume, I empty them into two old bins, which are effectively giant wormeries and the worms break them down into sticky, crumbly "black gold" in no time. I sieve the leaf mould and return most of the worms to the bins. There are lots of other trees around, and most of their leaves seem to end up in my garden. Not having a shredder or a mower, I don't bother with London Plane leaves - they are huge and like wooden dinner plates and take years to break down - I just put those out for the council to collect and process and burn some for woodash which goes on the border or in the compost bin. Similarly, I get rid of most of the sycamore leaves, as I find they just go slimy. I can put up with the bags stacked in various corners around the garden in the winter. From spring, I gradually process them and spread the leaf mould on the borders in the summer to help reduce watering. It is lovely stuff. Usually by the time the first leaves start to fall - at the end of August - I have processed the previous year's harvest and it all starts again! It has really improved the quality of my soil, which was sick and yellow when I took on my garden and is now black and full of life. It's definitely worth doing.
Got 7 bags last year that have gone flat and slimey (I slip if I try to walk over them so they are THAT slimey!). Did the pricking the bag and wetting off the leaves before tying up the bag thing and this is where they are. I opened one and it was deffo slimey so used it as mulch on the clematis. I've left the rest to rot off more. I've also collected another 7 bags from this year and put them at the other end of the shed although you can tell the difference in the years' collections no problem.
I too am following this thread with interest, thanks for raising the issue.
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I make proper leaf mould with leaves piled into a wire container which works much better than bags. I don't usually chop them up, I just rake them into piles and collect them. It takes longer than the other methods to rot down and I would shred them if I could to help them along. However, it makes the most wonderful compost - makes me feel like a real gardener!
Last week i opened two old compost bags which i'd filled with leaves from last winter. I originally had them stored in a ramshackle mesh & wood bin but got fed up with the thing & just plonked the relatively uncomposted contents into a couple of old compost bags. Having lost interest (forgive me, it was my 1st year here & was up to my neck propogating seeds, building a pond etc) i dumped the two into a metal incinerator and that sat happily in a shady zone far from the house.
Well, i had a nice surprise: the mould seemed to have been produced, just a small portion of yet to be fully broken down clumps within it, but I reckon a further year would have made the finer grade. I'm over the moon with it; the whole lot got quickly worked into the surface of some new beds.
i wonder if my accidental three phased approach helps? (I.E. open bin 1st, bags 2nd, metal bin 3rd)
I'm sure it did but it sounds like hard work!
another 6 bags of leaves bagged today for 2018. It's a waiting game this gardening lark eh?