we've filled one bin liner and, with our new leaf vacuum/ mulcher, it shouldn't be long before we've more bin liners than we know what to do with,
spades and bin liners in the boot, now, where did I put my balaclava ? ;D
I saw a lovely pile of leaves today. I'm not sure I'm confident enough YET to get out my spade and scoop them up. The men in white coats might be called ;D
I was going to take a leaf out of your book but you got there first. ;D
Leaf it out Ollie, yes Scousers its that time of year again, I have been eyeing up the leafs in the park for a few weeks now, now where did I put them jumbo black bags, Lauren I put my Hi Viz Vest from work on and people think you work for the council and ignore you, the best tip somebody on here give last year was wait until the roadsweepers bag them up then drive around picking them up, hence no effort bagging them up, they put the leafs in white bags where I live. PS what are the peeps on here doing with there leafs from last year. ;D ;D ;D
I've got two bagsful already - they're all blown into one corner of my flats near some stairs, so they pile up a treat. I don't care who sees me picking them up - the neighbours are used to me by now, and as I always say:
Where there's no class there's no shame!
;D
I'd forgotten about that, ck..will keep an eye on the council lads here, saves them moving them and our backs scooping them up ;D
half a dalek of rotted leaf mould is now bagged up, sifted and waiting to be made into our own potting compost :)
I have an empty dalek Scousers, I may store my first new batch in there. ;D ;D ;D
Leaf gathering is what Autumn half term is made for. Going to try and beat last years 32 black bin bags this year. Also going to use one of those 'skip' bags that jsut get thrown away - now how many black bags does that equate to? :-\
Quote from: redclanger on October 18, 2007, 22:13:58
Also going to use one of those 'skip' bags that jsut get thrown away - now how many black bags does that equate to? :-\
Standard black bag = 90 litres
Standard PP woven bag = 1000 litres
So just over 11 Bags.
I don't bother collecting leaves as I know the people who drive the councils lorries they pick them up & drop them off for me. I also know the contracters who look after the village park & they drop off trailer loads of leaves this time of year grass clipping the rest of the year. Woodchips & logs for the fire are availiable free by the lorryload on demand from several of the local tree surgeons I know.
We have a similar arrangement with the parks dept. for chippings must askl about leaves..
::)
Hi all,
For your information, I carried out a wholly UN scientific experiment last year, the majority of my leaves were placed in my chicken wire container. the excess leaves were bagged in black sacks ,moistened & holes poked in the bags. One year later, the results are, leaf container well rotted down & emptied onto beds at allotment, ;D bagged leafs, hardly rotted at all >:( Any body else tried this?
Adrian.
Adding to adrianhumph's comments, here are our observations. We filled a 1000 litre woven baggie with leaves, because it seemed a good idea to "lose" the leaves into.
Folded the top over - then forgot about them for 9 months. Result ==
Perfectly rotted mulch. it went down to about 1/5 of the volume.
We'll be repeating the procedure with much more leaves this year !
We've got a huge chickenwire container enough for several years, we just separate the collections by the year. Unfortunately the trees that shed all the leaves have been cut down, so our collection will be much reduced. The good part of that is that we get more light all the year round.
The trees at home are still there, though ... Should fill one dalek with that. ;D ;D ;D
can I ask why you collect leaves?
Is it just to make compost? as I only have 100 m2 of lottie, and my compost bin is already pretty full, would it be useful for me to collect some too?
what do rotten leaves add to the soil??? or do you just use them to cover the veg as mulch over winter?? I am kinda confused...
they're like gold dust once rotted down, antipodes, we're going to make our own potting compost next spring with ours, we put rotted leaves at the bottom of the carrot bed, they love it..you can put them on top of the beds, cover them, the worms incorporate them, I can't remember what they have in them but they are kept for precious crops ;D
well that is news to me!!! I live next to a wood, should I get out there with my rake and a bag??? are there any types that are better than others? only problem I have is that I cannot identify european trees ;D none of them look like gum trees!!! I know there are oaks and chestnuts....
The leaves of some trees rot down quicker than others. Is it oak or sycamore that's notoriously slower to rot? (probably neither, knowing my d'oh! factor). If mine aren't completely rotted by the time I want to use them I just mix some in with the compost anyway.
I also shred Christmas trees and leave in bags to rot down, to use as a mix/ mulch for acid loving plants. Mind you, you could grow a Clematis vitalba waiting for those things to rot...
;D
As a rule of thumb, small leaves make good compost faster and without much intervention. Large leaves tend to lay flat like roof tiles and can cause large areas of the heap to dry out completely and stop decaying. This is the primary reason for frequent turning of the heap.
What we are talking here is the good old http://bluewisteria.co.uk/tools/composting.php (http://bluewisteria.co.uk/tools/composting.php) Moriati composting method.
I have been equaly cheaky our parish has just employed there own groundmen, and i was showing them what needs doing on the allotments on friday. And they have VOLUNTEERED to fill my leaf bin for me :)
Tomorrow i am going to finish sticking the sticken wire to the walls to make a suitable container :) I have also given them a 1 ton builders bag they can fill.
YIPPIE
I have four large compost bins made from corrugated sheeting. Each bin is 8ft x 8ft. I live about 150 yards from a woodland, last year I collected 25 large bags of oak leaves. This filled one of my compost bins. This year I am going for gold as I have more time to myself as I have just semi retired. Up to now I have about 2 ton of ordinary compost in one bin. the other three are going to be filled with leaves. The compost area to me is the engine house of a allotment.
Great Idea, I will move all the compost into one bin and get them to fill the other side as well :)
Your right about it being the heart of the lotty
Out in the road this morning sweeping up the leaves - got four bags full and I reckon about another four to fall off........and then there is the other tree opposite.........
Bought myself one of the those leaf blowers/vacums myself this year - g/f garden seems to attract all the leaves from the surrounding gardens, looking forward to some lovely leave mould for mulching pots and containers and adding to compost next year.
heavens! maybe I should stick a cylinder of chicken wire on my ground and get some leaves into it!! I am amazed that a lot of people on my allotment don't even make any compost, they must prefer buying fertilizer :(
I have a big wooden box and it is quite full, i stick everything I can into it!! But I think the leaves should be separate or I will have no more room at all. I guess I will just go scavenging in the park with some bin bags and pick up whatever I can find ???
yes the chicken wire allows the wind to get in but the leaves cant get out 2 easy. Over winter this will break down and you can mix it with your own compost to make somethink wonderful!!
Quote from: antipodes on October 22, 2007, 09:40:15
heavens! maybe I should stick a cylinder of chicken wire on my ground and get some leaves into it!! I am amazed that a lot of people on my allotment don't even make any compost, they must prefer buying fertilizer :(
I have a big wooden box and it is quite full, i stick everything I can into it!! But I think the leaves should be separate or I will have no more room at all. I guess I will just go scavenging in the park with some bin bags and pick up whatever I can find ???
just watch out in the park, in case someone 'walks' the dog ;D
Quote from: antipodes on October 19, 2007, 15:01:51I live next to a wood, should I get out there with my rake and a bag???
Don't let anyone see you: what you're suggesting is illegal ;)
The leaf mould keeps the wood alive.
It's different in the parks and gardens because the leaves kill the grass by excluding light,
and the grass is fed by gardeners and park-keepers.
Most compostable material contains weed seeds,
which germinate in your garden,
and which then go back on the heap (!)
It's composted by bacteria, woodlice, worms, . . . .
Leaves contain virtually no weed seeds,
so the compost can be used as potting compost.
They are composted mostly by moulds,
so it takes longer.
The moulds need air, so the black bags take a lot longer.
Sorry, I can't resist a science lecture now and again. It takes me back to the old days, and keeps me going.
My wooden slatted composter takes 30 bin bag fulls. The council here provide green bags to collect stuff that can be composted, so late evening the day before dustbin day, I go around and 'harvest' green bags from the local area. I only collect leaves and grass, dustmen can have the rest.
My boot can only take 10 at a time. Collected a boot full last night, will harvest another 10-15 from my road tonight, and a further 10 tomorrow from around the corner.
Lots of horse chestnuts,oaks and beaches around here - just perfect. I try to avoid the thicker, larger leaves like magnolias.
I tip a few bags out at a time, remove any platsic wrappers that always get included, and run the lawn mower over them. This shreds them and gets the composter off to a head start. This mixed with the grass rots beautifully. I collect about 50% more that the composter will hold, so that as the heap goes down I can top it up.
Once spring arrives, I only mix in grass clippings, don't add any more leaves, and turn the whole lot over once a month.
Come October, I transfer the 'gold' into a builders bag and start refilling the composter.
By spring time I have good quality potting compost. What I don't use by May, I put around the runner beans and peas.
Collecting bags is a lot easier/quicker than picking up leaves.
I've been doing this for years now, and some of the neighbours bag their leaves specially for me, although some of the newer residents can't understand why, first thing in the morning, the council appeared to have collected their neighbours green bags, but not theirs.
Looking down the road at all the green bags put out, its clear very few people have compost heaps.
Quote from: Amazin on October 19, 2007, 17:58:49
I also shred Christmas trees and leave in bags to rot down, to use as a mix/ mulch for acid loving plants. Mind you, you could grow a Clematis vitalba waiting for those things to rot...
;D
Bit confused by that comment. I did my thesis on Clematis vitalba and it is one of the fastest growing plants there is.....it can grow metres a day!
Commonly known as...
;D
I thought leaves took a long time to rot down. Longer than making compost which is why they suggest keeping leaves out of the compost bin.
Went with husband and son to local park and collected 8 large sacks of leaves. OH hid behind a tree initially when cars came bye in case anyone knew him. We did get a few strange looks from people in their cars.Almost left husband and son to walk home so I could get more sacks in the car.
Tomorrow son is off on mountain biking introductry afternoon at another local park - so I am going armed with rake and more sacks. Just wish i could get more sacks in the car.
On the way home my son was working out how many sacks I could collect while he was on his course which lasts 1 1/2 hrs. We had collected the 8 sacks in about 50mins. What he forgot to take into consideration was that my husband and son were throwing conkers at each other for 20 of those minutes at least !
For Kea - I'll try again...
Mind you, you could grow [spoiler]an Old Man's Beard[/spoiler] waiting for those things to rot...
(sigh!)
::)
I've been collecting "leaves by bag" - i.e. those bagged up by the various London councils for 3 years now.. but yesterday I was told off by the street sweeper for stealing that council's leaves!
As he was the one with the broom and the paddles, and as my Polish is rubbish, so arguing was gonna be u/s, I legged it in the car to another stash.
As I understand it, nutrients in leaf mould are not the most important thing as they are pretty non-existent; it's the use of the leaf mould for soil conditioning, as it all helps to make the soil that much more crumbly, and on the Surrey clay that's a major bonus.
"Stealing the councils leaves?"...........................Well I never ::)
Can't believe it Delboy a T LEAF. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately Amazin Cv has so many common names I didn't know which one you meant. Now it makes perfect sense. There are several other plants with that common name including a lichen.
You can phone your local council for permission.....why would they refuse?! Then you can't be told you're stealing the councils leaves.
Quote"Stealing the councils leaves?".
They are not the Council's leaves. They are there for the benefit of the residents.
I was in Brent!!! Alperton to be precise. Richmond are nicer..
Technically the leaves have been thrown away by the owner (tree).
They're probably getting huffy about "their" leaves because they sell the green waste on to a subcontractor who then makes compost from it which the taxpayers (and leaf providers) then have the pleasure of BUYING back from said contractor!
That's what happens in our part of Surrey anyway - the council are robbing g*ts! >:(
Tabby
Does your Council make a profit then or does the money they make from selling the green waste for compost mean better local services or lower Council Tax?
Quote from: redclanger on October 26, 2007, 18:19:58
Does your Council make a profit then or does the money they make from selling the green waste for compost mean better local services or lower Council Tax?
Good question - don't know if the council make a profit. The compost is sold by an independent company who have already been paid by the council to collect the leaves - I don't know if the council then receives any money from the sale of it. I'm going to email them and find out.
If they put the money back into providing a better service for us, then I'd be happy with that, but at the moment they're not doing much to convince me - we've gone onto fortnightly bin collections (like much of the country), they've just decided to charge disabled drivers for parking, cut the amount of time the disabled swimming club can use the pool as they don't pay full price for using it and spent millions of pounds refurbishing the town's car parks installing a new pay-as-you-go ticket system which will enable them to not only put up the price of parking, but will earn them more money.
We're having hundreds more flats built across the town to meet the housing targets and no new infrastructure provided for the rise in population. Our schools are massively over - subscribed and they're still trying to close two of them!
As for council tax - it's ruinous and each year we seem to get less and less for it.
Sorry - this thread was about the joys of leaf collecting - I'll stop ranting now. If it wasn't dark outside, I'd go and rake some up to calm down! ;D
Tabby
QuoteI was in Brent!!
Then they were
my leaves. 8)
I've just helped myself to 5 bags from the strip of land with trees on down the side of our town carpark. With the help of teenage son so we did it 4-30pm on Sunday when it was quiet so his friends wouldn't see him! On Monday you couldn't even see where we'd been there are still so many!
Quote from: delboy on October 25, 2007, 13:28:23
Yesterday I was told off by the street sweeper for stealing that council's leaves!
Try 'harvesting' before 9:30,or after 15:30, its rare to find anyone from the council outside these hours.
Wow! someone has a street cleaner, lucky you, we havent had our street swept with a brush since Mr Baulch retired in 1966. A fella come on a machine once every 3 weeks and nips down one side of the road doing at least 30 mph and thats it.
powerspade, I have a very vivid image in my mind of "Mr Baulch, the road sweeper" - The lovely old man, back there in 1966, - no job was ever to much for Mr Baulch. He'd take great care, always a wave and a smile. he'd make sure your gate was closed. Tidied away something into your garden, aways neat.
Everyone respected him.
- But, I've never been to your town !
went to the plot today, after 2 days away and a friendly person from the bowlers has filled his trolley for us with leaves ;D
Our council drops their leaves off at our site for us. Not got any chickenwire though :-[
we've got ours in a dalek composter ;D