Leaf Mould

[Mumbles]

Hi all
I have been reading about creating leaf mould
In my latest gardening mag. I am going to now the grass this morning and am wondering if I can add this to my bag?
Thanks



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[chris]

It'll help it rot down faster....

[Two_Sheds]

Yes, grass clippings will speed the leafmould along. Tip it all into a bucket or on the patio, and mix well before watering it a bit, then storing it in a perforated black plastic sack for about a year.

Comfrey leaves can go in there too

[Mumbles]

Great stuff thanks good job too as there is no room left in my brown recycle bin (garden waste bin)


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[alldigging]

I have read about people mowing the lawn with leaves on and bagging it up together that way. Not sure by the time most leaves are falling to the floor that it's still worth mowing the lawn...

[rustylady]

Great stuff thanks good job too as there is no room left in my brown recycle bin (garden waste bin)


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Why are you sending garden waste to the Council?

[alldigging]

Why are you sending garden waste to the Council?

Someone on our site appears to have vanished all his big pile of weeds! Can't believe people remove it! It should be against the rules. Actually it's probably technically against the lease which forbids removal of soil from site I think.

I should set up another compost bin on my plot and put a sign up for people to donate their weeds.

[Mumbles]

Why are you sending garden waste to the Council?

Aren't compost bins smelly? My grandparents (big gardeners) always had a compost heap and I remember it being a really smelly part of the garden...


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[Mumbles]

Also (I know it's a long shot) can I put pine cones in my leaf mould? There are 4 huge line trees outside my house so I have loads of them!


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[Mumbles]

I should set up another compost bin on my plot and put a sign up for people to donate their weeds.

I can put weeds in too? This is great stuff!


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[chris]

Weed leaves? Depending on what the weed is, yes. Roots? - unless they're dead (let them dry out in hot sun - completely) then no. Oh, and I'd not try it with knotweed or the like

[Martin H]

Mixing autumn leaves in with the grass cuttings will help them break down and make compost, by adding roughage and letting air in. But if the mix is mostly dead leaves it will stop the composting process because there isn't enough bacterium food in there.

Dead leaves on their own break down completely differently from normal garden waste. They rely on fungi to break them down airlessly. So for example you can stick them in black bin bags on their own, seal up the bags and wait a couple of years to get lovely leafmould. Whereas normal green waste
relies on bacteria to break it down and the bacteria need oxygen. Let the air in and the bacteria do a fast and efficient job, but let it get all compacted and you get a nasty smelly mess that takes ages to rot.

So my advice would be to mix a proportion of the dead leaves in with the weeds and grasscuttings to make nice compost and stash the rest of the leaves on their own somewhere out of the way to make leafmould eventually.

Reading this back now I've made it sound really complicated, but it isn't really. Maybe a master composter will pop in and simplify...

[chris]

She already has...


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[horticultural_hobbit]

Is lovely stuff. I have seven builders bags-rescued, all of them-and last year, when I had four, I used to collect on average 13 bags on a Wednesday-whilst the garden waste van was passing through, and wheelbarrow them to the plot. Used a lot of it to fill raised beds before putting compost on top.

I have observed, with astonishment, the success of three squashes, having put one tonne-that's one builders bag- of leaves into a 1mx2m raised beds.