Leaf Mould

[simhop]

HAs anyone got any tips on how to make good leaf mould, I plan to rake up all the leaves (slightly damp) from my fruit trees chuck them in a black bin liner, put some holes in the bottom of the bag and hang up in heated garage  (about 5C through the winter). Is that all I need to do?

simhop

[simhop]

[Hugh_Jones]

Not quite.  Slightly damp isn`t sufficient. When you`ve filled the bin bag with leaves you should first give the leaves a good soaking (fill up the bag, if possible) and leave it to stand for a few days to make sure that all the leaves are thoroughly wetted before you make the holes.  I don`t think hanging the bag in a heated garage is quite such a good idea - with holes in the bottom the contents will start to dry out and the fungal break-down of the leaves will come to a standstill.  

[Mimi]

Dont think Ill have much this year..   :'( :'( All this wind has blown most of the leaves off our trees.

[Learner Gardener]

I have used 2 methods to make leaf mould ...

Fill plastic bin bags full with leaves, make sure that they are fully wetted (not just damp), punch several holes in the bag to allow drainage, fold the top of th bag over to seal it and leave in a hidden part of the garden for 12 months. I wouldn't bother hanging it up as it is not required in the process and the wait of the very wet leaves may result in the bag tearing. A bag full of leaves makes about 1/5 of a bag of leaf mould. it is a good method if you have a small supply of leaves.

This year a built a 4'x7'x3' cage with chicken wire and used garden canes for the posts. The leaves were left open to the elements which kept them mostly fully wtted although i did use a hosepipe on a cpouple of occaisions in very dry spells. The top 3"/4" do not rot down as it is difficult to ensure that they stay wet as they are exposed to the wind. underneath that layer the leaf mould was brilliant. I managed to mulch all of my garden borders with it this year.

Some say that if you chop mup the leaves with a lawn mower it helps the decomposition process. I will try this year.

I enlisted the help of neighbouirs who collected their leaves and also collected the leaves from the very arfge maple trees that we have in our road to obtain an ample supply.

Hope this helps

[Mrs Ava]

Collected all the leaves I could from the garden and the plot last year, bunged them in bin liners or old compost bags and poured in a couple of buckets of water.  Punch some holes into the bags, tied them up, tucked them away in a corner, and forgot all about them.  Opened the ones at the allotment last week and WOW!  I have never made leaf mould before, but will be making plenty more.  Black/brown rich earthy smelling crumbly and lovely!  I could hear the allotment say thanks as I surrounded my raspberries and rhubarb with it!

[derbex]

I use the lawnmower to hoover-up the leaves when they fall. The black bag method works Ok, but I found the chicken wire version better.

As mentioned earlier I wouldn't hang the bags up, if the state of ours is anything to go by you'll have leaves all over the floor.


We're lucky in having a neighbour with a big tree -when they rake the leaves up we save them a trip to the tip :)

BTW -rainwater is supposed to be better than tap.

It'll be time to put last years to use soon.

Jeremy

[Hugh_Jones]

My original reply was, of course, directed purely to the question - namely the use of bin bags.  However, for lerger quamtities the use of a chicken wire type pen is greatly preferrable.  However, the methods so far described can be greatly improved upon if the following additional steps are taken:-

1.  Line the inside of the pen with newspapers (you can fix these to the chicken wire temporarily with clothes pegs until the pen is full, when they can be removed). This will stop the leaves near the edges drying out.  If you use a shredder for your prunings and hedge trimmings, the shreddings can be mixed in with the leaves at the same time and they will all rot down together.

2. Put the leaves in level layers and water each layer thoroughly every 6" or so depth so that all the leaves are thoroughly wetted - it`s of little use to simply stack up a 4ft pile and then water.

3. Cover the heap with black plastic, old carpet, or something similar, which will stop the top layer drying out or blowing away, as well as preventing contamination from wind blown weed seeds.

Shredding the leaves, either with a shredder or with a rotary mower, before stacking will indeed result in better and quicker breakdown of the leaves, as well as reducing the amount of space required by up to one third.

[simhop]

Lots of advice, thanks - regards to the heated garage, I thought it would be better in there than out in the cold. I understand now that it is not good to dry them out but instead they will be frozen solid between Nov and March. Oh well I suppose I will just have to wait a bit longer than you guys not silly enough to move to a cold country :)

[Hugh_Jones]

If things are that desperate simhop, why not just dig a hole and bury the leaves (with or without the bag) and dig them up again in a couple of years time.  Youy`ll be able to find them quite easily because the ground surface will sink as they break down.

[campanula]

hello,
i had a bit of a leaf mold attack last year, eventually collecting around 30 binbags of leaves which i soaked and chucked in a pallet bin. I undid them last week to find variable results - the bags at the bottom of the bin had stayed well wet so the contents looked like a squashed leafyish cake, about 4 inches thick. It broke up well but still only looked partially rotted down. Good enough to use as a mulch but I want the really yummy stuff! The bags on top looked identical to when they went in last year but, in fairness, they had got pretty dried out. Also, it was not my fave job, ripping apart the snail and slug infested bin bags having climbed into the bin to get them all. This year, I have lined the bin with cardboard and thrown all the old leaves in it and will just top up with more this year. Then, I will cover the top of the bin to keep the moisture in. Easy to just chuck a can of water on it during hot weather. Many books i have read have suggested good leaf mould can take at least two years and i feel encouraged enough with the bags that did stay wet to keep at it. I think much also depends on the type of leaves - i used a lot of oak and beech - high lignin so much tougher to break down - but lovely when it does. I had a lot of fun raking leaves too!
cheers. suzy

[Learner Gardener]

I have also heard about oak leaves taking longer to break down. Now that you have mentioned it, of the stuff that didn't breaksown, most of it was oak levaes. However, this undecomposed amount was only small compared to the total. perhaps chopping the leaves up would help (am going to try it thisd year). As I use the leaf mould as a mulch rather than for potting compost (2 year wait) the stuff that hasn't  decomposed will rot down by the Spring anyway.