Piglet wrote:Our local council drops loads off at our plots that are collected at the local park.
Thanks for the idea Piglet. I noticed a chap outside our office this morning hoovering up leaves. A quick check showed these were just going to be thrown away, so he's going to leave me one of those big builders bags full of leaves before he goes.
Hi Monika, you've obviously touched a spot of interest and I must get in my bit. I get our school gardeners to bag the leaves they collect, so I get an assortment. I have some wire mesh which I use as a leaf-mould cage, as you do.
Someone once told me that horse chestnut leaves sre not recommended, but I haven't found them doing any harm.
Certainly let the rain in. This summer was so wet that the leaves I collected last November had already decomposed by October, since there were periods during which the leaves really warmed up. Fungi like wet+warm. Normally you can expect to get good leafmould in 2 years, as JB says.
I use leafmould to add to home-composted material and some perlite in making my own seed and potting compost, using Alan Titchmarsh's recipe. None of the plants so potted died, so I'll make it again. But my main use of leafmould is to prepare my roots bed for the carrots etc. I don't think I used enough last year, but I'm optimistic that what I've done this year, giving the bed a generous layer and covering it with cardboard, will work for me next. We'll see.
Several years ago I made a wire leafmold bin under a beech tree. Everything seemed fine until I discovered that roots from the tree had grown up and into the heap making it very difficult to use the bottom layers. Since then I have used the same method as Johnboy and it works well given at least 2 seasons.
Thanks everybody for the good tips. I have indeed made one wire cage (circular with about 1.5m diameter and height) and also filled five large plastic bags with leaves and pricked holes into them. They are all mixed, including beech, birch, willow, alder, hazel with a large proportion of bird cherry. So we'll see what happens next year.
For years I had a chicken wire cage tagged onto the side of the compost bin on the allotment, we used to fill the bags on our way down as the one road ran along side a cemetary and there was no shortage of leaves,the following autumn I put a riddle over a wheelbarrow filled the riddle with the leaves and ran a gloved hand over them and ended with lovely compost, This past 2/3 years we haven't a car so couldn't collect them for the plot.
We have lots of tree's in our rd.at home so I collect these into bags,left them till the following Sept. when I opened the bags found the leaves very wet I spread one bag at a time out on the greenhouse bench to dry then riddled it and bagged it up for the spring sowing ,Made a Monty Don mix.
Back to the top, simply because I cleared more leaves today. Although I clear a lot during the autumn, every Christmas/new year more appear. As I was doing this two thoughts were on my mind. Firstly this the leaves were the positive spin to the two large horse chestnut trees which shade much of the plot from the southern, highest border. (I should add that their beauty adds something too, despite the considerable shade cast) Secondly, methodology of producing the leaf mould. I use old fertiliser/potting compost bags and just pile the leaves in, pressing as many leaves in as I can, then fold the top over and put a brick on top. Leave alone for a while. When it looks ok, I use some. I do work it over a bit, rather as I do the compost heaps, in that old often gets worked into new and mixed up. If it doesn't look ready, it gets left, or mixed up, turned over and looked at after a few months.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Hi Stephen, My method is very similar to yours. I fill black binbags full of wet leaves and I then tie the bag up and put a fork or two through the bottom of the bag then lay them aside with the holes next to the ground. With leaves the initial degradation is through fungal action and the holes in the bottom allows worms to enter the bag and the worms seem to complete the process. I may not need to use them for at least a year and mainly two years so when needed the compost is always there. After the first year I then stack the bags but leave them on the ground for the first year. If you stack them in the first year they seem not to do so well I suspect that this is because they drain all the moisture away which is needed. I appreciate that I probably have the space with which to carry this out which sadly most people do not have but it is a method I have used for many many years and is very successful. JB
Hi Johnboy Thanks for the reassurance, I did see your posting, somewhere near the top. This way stikes me as a whole lot easier than caging in chicken wire and you separate out stuff which is ready to use from that which is not. It is very tempting to clear the leaves from a couple of large plane trees outside the sorting office (they get left) and I would end up with more leafmould than I would know how to use!
I suppose I could creep out at night...
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
