Leaf Mould

[Garden Mum]

Hi Everyone/Anyone (?)
I have two daleks nearly full of leaf mould but I'm not sure where is best to use it and I don't want to waste it as it took ages to collect it in the first place...and over two years in the making!

Should I save it for certain vegetables (I know someone who is using his to fill his bean trench) - if yes, which ones? - or use it generally as with my garden compost, and how much should I use? I feel like it's gold dust so really want to make the most of it!

Thank you for any advice.

[Geoff]

Could be a key way of avoiding peat (if you subscribe to that fallacious objective).
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9514

[Kleftiwallah]

If it's been in there two years I'm sure all the tree seeds have sprouted and died. Bung it round the base of your plants to stop the ground drying out. Cheers, Tony.

[Johnboy]

Hi Tony,
To distribute Leaf-Mold as you suggest would be a total travesty.
As Garden Mum says, it has taken two years in the making and she certainly doesn't want to waste it. What you suggest would be a waste of a very fine hard won asset.
As Geoff suggests Leaf-Mold, when refined, is the basis of a very fine natural seeding compound.
After two years there will probably still be some leaf litter but if sieved and the finer particles used and return the rest back to rot down a little longer.
Garden Mum,
Treat your hard won leaf-mold like gold dust as it is very precious and if you have too much to use at one go bag-up the sieved particles and keep them for the years to come and return the rest to the Dalek to rot down a little more.
JB.

[Geoff]

I sieved some 2009 leafmould today and made up a compost of 6 parts sieved soil, 3 parts leafmould and 1 part sand for a Tomato experiment (more about that later).

compost.jpg (117.76 KiB) Viewed 3815 times

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Garden Mum, carrots really appreciate a little put in the drill prior to sowing the seed.
Just take the drill out a little bit deeper than you normally would.

Evening Geoff, your experiments are all very interesting, takes me back to when i used to do a little gardening at the Manor house when i was a boy.

[Mike Vogel]

hi Garden Mum and others. I used to get leafmould from the school gardeners, but now I sweep the streets in the autumn and put it all in a cage on the allotment. I find it rots down well enough in one year, but after 2 it will be the real macoy. What i do is to spread it in quantities on the beds where I will be growing carrots, parsnips and other root veg in the autumn and fork it in very lightly. Together with enviromesh [against carrot fly] I have had a very good crop of carrots and huge parsnips. Leaf mould is slightly acid, and this suits carrots and potatoes, so I also use leafmould to line my potato trenches.

[Kleftiwallah]

I bow before your educated and informative reply Johnboy. I've been trying to get our council to bring the leaves they collect from the cemetery, parks etc (less chance of being soaked in oils and petrols) and dump it at our allotment site. Cheers, Tony.

[Johnboy]

Hi Tony,
You would never credit it that the local council here were dumping all the leaves in what was used as a lay-by but was actually the result of a road straightening exercise. They actually took a person to court for stealing their leaves from their dump. The council were given a b-ll--king from the Magistrate for wasting the courts time with something so trivial and the case was dismissed.
The council maintained that it doesn't matter where the leaves come from they are treated as toxic waste. The following weeks Local Newspaper Headlines:
Council accused of dumping toxic waste in lay-by! And on and on and on!
What chance do you think you have of getting a council to think and act like normal people? Local Authorities are run by unelected people and they are very difficult and unhelpful to deal with and they are impossible to get rid of.
JB.

[Garden Mum]

Thank you all very much for such interesting and informative replies. I think I will use it as a base for seedlings in my sink.

I don't have much success with carrots and was thinking of giving them a miss, but I as it seems work well with them I might grow a trial batch this year.

Several years ago I left tons of leaves rotting around the garden and one day I went outside and noticed about 50,000 sycamores growing everwhere! There were so many it took nearly two hours to pull them all out!

(JohnBoy, re the council - there are petitions around here to cut back some huge trees that overhang people's houses...the council is planting new trees (same type) in between the existing ones and say they don't plan to remove any!!)

[Johnboy]

Hi Garden Mum,
That sounds about par for the course with the council. You try and find out on who's orders the new trees are planted and you will be met with a wall of silence. Awkward is really the only way you can describe them.
JB.