Leave leaves?

[crazy_red]

Hi all,

I am in the process of making raised beds.

I still need loads of topsoil to fill them up and may not be able to do this until spring.

The beds are currently filling with fallen leaves from the neighbour's trees. Instead of bagging all these up and disposing of them, can I, or should I, just mix them up with what little soil is in there, as they fall in?

Will it do any good / harm / nothing..... or am I just being lazy

I don't want to waste a possible resource and intend to make a leaf mould bin eventually, but don't have room at the moment, so I will otherwise be having to take them to the local recycling centre.

Red x

[lynda66]

i'd leave the leaves in there, if you're filling with soil anyway, they will break down eventually. i don't bother removing leaves, i just leave them, and they get dug in when i can be bothered digging

[terrier]

I used uncomposted leaves in a bed this spring (just gone) and once dug in seemed to disappear in no time at all. Don't leave them on the surface as they'll just blow about and make a slimy mess and make good hiding places for slugs. Make leaf mould by stuffing them into bin liners with holes poked in the sides. Waste not ,want not

[crazy_red]

I'm not sure how to ask this question, but it leads on from my initial one, so please bear with me if it seems a bit rambling

There is a huge leylandii (?sp) at the top of my garden which is constantly shedding brown 'frondy' bits everywhere. It is away from the beds, so unlike the deciduous leaves, what falls off it just ends up piling up on the concrete.

Until now, I have been shovelling it up and dumping it because I was told that evergreen leaves and prunings take 'years' to break down properly so I shouldn't put them in my ordinary compost bin.

I was advised that I would need to build something to compost evergreen material seperately from my 'soft' waste and prunings - something I don't have room to do at the moment

Conversely, I then read that you could put evergreen prunings in the ordinary compost bin, but that they just needed to be shredded up small first.

Sooooo, should this dead, naturally shed stuff be treated as for 'evergreen prunings' and if so, what is the real skinny on composting the pesky stuff?

Can I mix it into the beds like the other leaves, can I put it into the ordinary compost bin, both of the above, neither or something else?

aaaaaaaaargle

Red x

[piskieinboots]

I agree with terrier - don't leave leaves on surfaces of beds/borders, they can harbour disease and are certainly hiding places for slugs and snails.

As the the leylandii, these tend to be very acidic so adding too many may place havoc with your levels .....also they will take ages to rot down - I would say add some but not too many

[Two_Sheds]

it depends on your quantities. anything organic ( ie not synthetic) will decompose eventually.
Leaves on their own, in a binliner, take about 12-24 months to turn into usuable stuff.
If you mix them with something like comfrey or grass clippings it'll do a bit quicker.
If everything is shredded, the surface area of everything is increased, more bacteria action can happen, and rotting is even quicker.

I am lazy and I don't have a shredder, so I chuck everything, bits of twigs even, on my heap. I have usable compost, but I have to pick twigs out all the time.

Conifer clippings on their own would be acidic, but they'd be mixed with other stuff on your heap, and you'd need masses to turn your heap (and your garden) acidic by adding them. Binning them is a waste of a resource, so shred them and compost them if you can. People always avoid adding citrus peel for the same reason - but the amount of citrus in a heap would be tiny and have virtually no effect on the pH overall.
If you add them to your heap and you think it's getting too acidic, add some lime to even it up.

[crazy_red]

Thanks all for the advice.

But I'm still a bit confused Two_Sheds. Can I expand my question, to make sure i've understood your answer properly?

I don't actually prune the conifer, it's about thirty foot tall ( b****y awful thing that it is! ) so i'm not producing fresh/green clippings.

So do I take it that the small, brown dead-looking bits of leaf frond that fall off on their own are just as acidic and difficult to rot down as fresh clippings would be?

By the way, you've really gone and done it now Two-Sheds and Piskieinboots - now I have a gazillion questions roaming round in my head about soil acidity



Eeeek!

[piskieinboots]

please - call me Piskie, Piskieinboots in my full dressed up Sunday name

Your homework for today, obtain a soil testing kit and check ya acidity, if it is too high....leave off the red wine for a couple weeks

[crazy_red]

Hi Piskie,

Done my homework and just got the results of my test back

- too much blood in my alcohol stream

[snuffer]

Hi crazy red. Don't worry to much about what goes in the compost bin. Composting can be as complicated as you make it. As Two Sheds says, anything organic will eventually rot down to form usable compost. As long as you don't over do it with the grass cliipings and produce a slimy, smelly heap you'll be fine.

You only have to be particular about what you add to the heap if you want quick results. If time is on your side anything and everything can go in (well almost, remember to leave out diseased stuff and perenial weed roots).

If you have room, work with at least two heaps. That way, one can be maturing whilst you are filling the other.

Remember, GYO is our hobby. Have fun with it and don't fret about it. If something doesn't quite work out this year we can put it right next. Every spring is a clean slate.

HAVE FUN.

[lynda66]

i always add privet prunings to my compost, run over them with the lawn mower, then chuck them in ...... i wee'd on the heap lots this year, and when moving the stuff from one bin to another, noticed there were no sign of any twigs,after about 3 months.... previously i just left the prunings and grass cuttings in a heap and they took about 12 months to become useable ........ basically if it's vegetable in description, it goes on my compost.

[crazy_red]

...... i wee'd on the heap lots this year, and when moving the stuff from one bin to another, noticed there were no sign of any twigs,after about 3 months.....

Ahem, er, does this mean what I think it means or does it mean something else?

[womble]

It means what you think it means.
Someone from here was at my house yesterday and I introduced them to my bin with urine, comfrey, nettles and couch grass roots in it, which has been marinading for a few months. They looked a bit green when I suggested they smell it.

[lynda66]

Ahem, er, does this mean what I think it means or does it mean something else?

totally it's a good activator ....... men can do it straight on the heap, us girls need to be a bit more inventive .... either a bucket, or you could try one of these she wee, Sporting Goods items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

[Capsid]

Adding the brown stuff shed from the Leylandii is fine for the compost. I don't think it will be acidic as it is non-living and mostly lignin which takes a while to rot (like leaves). It has plenty of bulk and will improve the soil structure.