Author Topic: leaf mould (Read 8919 times)

manicscousers · « **Reply #20 on:** October 22, 2006, 16:29:01 »

we dig a load in at the bottom of the carrot bed then cover it over with 6 to 8 inches of soft soil, the carrots love it, we had some 8" long and, because we covered it with fleece, no carrot fly :D

wahaj · « **Reply #21 on:** October 22, 2006, 20:39:59 »

I'll be going out tonight to rake some leaves into a bag. I'm taking one of those bags that my tonne of top soil came in.....so if i can fill one tonight...and then another maybe another night then i should have plenty to mulch my beds with next year.

And it had been raining all day so they should be all nice and wet.

Hyacinth · « **Reply #22 on:** October 22, 2006, 22:07:19 »

wonderful stuff. Once upon a time I just used to think that leaves were a nuisance :o - now I think of them as gold leaf 8)

wahaj · « **Reply #23 on:** October 23, 2006, 00:11:41 »

i've just been out in the pouring rain and collected about half a tonne's worth of leaves...not that weight i mean......but half of a tonne bag. that'll have to do. how much leaf mould will that make for me i wonder....

djbrenton · « **Reply #24 on:** October 23, 2006, 00:33:00 »

Interesting about Barnsdale. I was reading Organic magazine ( an old copy) and they trialled various overwinter methods.
1 Left bare
2 grazing rye
3 leaf mould covering

The crops of Swiss Chard the next year were ( from memory)
1 14kg
2 21kg
3 31kg

Guess which method I'm using this year.

triffid · « **Reply #25 on:** October 23, 2006, 00:36:15 »

Quote

how much leaf mould will that make for me i wonder....

Wahaj, no matter how much, it'll never be enough :D

MrsKP · « **Reply #26 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:15:13 »

I was sitting waiting for a friend outside her flat for about 20 mins yesterday watching a man hoover all his leaves up. I was just about to go and ask him what he was going to do with them all, when she came back out.

She was emotional so I couldn't carry on with my leaf request ...............

I feel a wahaj tonne sack moment coming on this weekend.

;D

supersprout · « **Reply #27 on:** October 23, 2006, 09:28:36 »

Quote from: djbrenton on October 23, 2006, 00:33:00

Interesting about Barnsdale. I was reading Organic magazine ( an old copy) and they trialled various overwinter methods.
1 Left bare
2 grazing rye
3 leaf mould covering

The crops of Swiss Chard the next year were ( from memory)
1 14kg
2 21kg
3 31kg

Guess which method I'm using this year.

really interesting dj! :o well remembered and thanks for posting :)
if only it werent swiss chard

manicscousers · « **Reply #28 on:** October 23, 2006, 19:35:29 »

because our alloment site was a swamp last year, we had to build all our beds from nothing, we dug the smelly grass up and turned it, covered it with cardboard, then we had to fill them, all 9 new beds. luckily, we are next to a bowling green, we got all the old, composted leaves and grass, loads of well rotted manure from the local farm brought in in bags and every bit of soil we could find, including an old disused compost heap, we've never grown such good brassicas and carrots, soft fruit and leeks as we did in the beds full of leaf mould :D

ruffmeister · « **Reply #29 on:** October 25, 2006, 14:39:39 »

we get ours from the council, its nice and rotted because it comes year on year so its lish just covered 1/3 of our plot with it! bloody heavy though

norfolklass · « **Reply #30 on:** October 25, 2006, 15:31:18 »

when we moved last year I couldn't bear to leave mine behind. there was a big old oak tree at the bottom of the drive and I'd filled at least 6 bin bags with lovely wet leaves that had rotted down beautifully. my boyfriend had somehow persuaded a couple of his friends from work to give us a hand loading the van but I was too embarrassed to add 6 dirty wet bin bags to the pile of stuff to be shifted, so I hid them and went back later on my own to pick them up in the car!

caroline7758 · « **Reply #31 on:** November 05, 2006, 13:18:04 »

I've just filled about 7 or 8 bags with leafmould from a friendly freecycler. Given that I haven't got much else in the way of decent compost, except some rotting horse manure, what would you say would be the best use of the precious leafmould? Mulching, digging in, mixing with the manure,saving for spring etc? It's about 2 years old, if that makes a difference.

supersprout · « **Reply #32 on:** November 05, 2006, 13:20:36 »

in this order IMO caroline:
make/use for seed/potting compost
mulch areas which are compacted
mulch anywhere that isn't mulched

if I dug, I'd dig in to compacted areas for a faster result :)

wahaj · « **Reply #33 on:** November 05, 2006, 13:20:59 »

Quote from: caroline7758 on November 05, 2006, 13:18:04

I've just filled about 7 or 8 bags with leafmould from a friendly freecycler. Given that I haven't got much else in the way of decent compost, except some rotting horse manure, what would you say would be the best use of the precious leafmould? Mulching, digging in, mixing with the manure,saving for spring etc? It's about 2 years old, if that makes a difference.

anything really. if you've got bad soil and you're planting new plants...you can add some into the bottom of the planting hole to give plants a good chance of settling....or your can use it in spring to use as a mulch around your plants and it'll get worked in by the worms.

personally i'd mix the compost, manure and leaf mould into one mixture and then you've got the best of all worlds.

manicscousers · « **Reply #34 on:** November 05, 2006, 15:17:27 »

thank you, Asda, we went yesterday and asked for the 2 big bags of leaves the lady was brushing up, she looked at us a bit strangely until we explained, then said we could clean them up around the petrol station if we liked, so, today went and collected 4 big bags
also went to collect the leaves off the bowling green next to the lottie, only thing is, bad backs, bad knees, bad neck pain, it'll all be worth it for the crops we'll get next year and no dog mess in it !! :)

caroline7758 · « **Reply #35 on:** November 05, 2006, 18:17:57 »

Thanks- I'll probably do a bit of each in the end!

cambourne7 · « **Reply #36 on:** November 05, 2006, 18:32:39 »

i posted on freecycle and got emailed a mesage about Horse Chestnut moth. This moth overwinters in the leaves and will not be destroyed by composting. And he gave me a link

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0806/horsechestnutproblems.asp

But so far all that i have been offered is miles away.

I am going to go up and build my leaf mould bin tomorrow, our car park in work is surrounded by trees and were in a business park so i am going to speak to the guys and see if they can bag up some leaves for me :-)

Will also try the local council and the tree surgon that drops off our wood chips.

froglets · « **Reply #37 on:** November 06, 2006, 09:45:10 »

Yesterday afternoon I went round the corner to the terribly nice manicured housing estate and collected four bin bags from the turning circle where the maple leaves had all conveniently blown together.

I got several polite smiles, a couple of looks from behind curtains and an occasional hello. They probaby though I was on community service as I was garden dressed and having a seriously bad hair day ( well, it was Sunday)

Only in Britain would people be too polite to ask what the h**l I was doing. Had to smile. and as a bonus I picked up a couple of bags of free stable manure on the way back from the tip.

wahaj · « **Reply #38 on:** November 06, 2006, 10:43:03 »

Quote from: froglets on November 06, 2006, 09:45:10

Yesterday afternoon I went round the corner to the terribly nice manicured housing estate and collected four bin bags from the turning circle where the maple leaves had all conveniently blown together.

I got several polite smiles, a couple of looks from behind curtains and an occasional hello. They probaby though I was on community service as I was garden dressed and having a seriously bad hair day ( well, it was Sunday)

Only in Britain would people be too polite to ask what the h**l I was doing. Had to smile. and as a bonus I picked up a couple of bags of free stable manure on the way back from the tip.

i did my leaf picking about 1am on a sunday night because i didn't want to be laughed at by the kids lol.

manicscousers · « **Reply #39 on:** November 06, 2006, 12:18:07 »

we've come to a stage where we don't care what anyone thinks, it must come with age, we tend to laugh as well :D

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Author Topic: leaf mould (Read 8919 times)