Leaf Mulch

[snohare]

I had a cunning idea the other day at the allotment...and then I thought, maybe it isn't so clever.
I have a wooden sided area which one day will be a raised bed, and inside it are growing some winter brassicas; a cabbage and some PSB. The latter is just coming ready, but the leaves are getting eaten voraciously by a sudden late epidemic of snails.
What I thought was, why not fill the bed with leaves, and let the molluscs chomp on them to their hearts content ? And then I thought, maybe the leaf mulch would not be so much a decoy, as a Mecca for every mollusc in the garden..which would shelter from frosts in it, venturing out only to eat my veggies, and reproducing rapidly amongst plentiful food which wouldn't just be confined to dead leaves...
Anyone ever tried this ? Any experiences of similar or relevant situations would be much appreciated.

[Potstubsdustbins]

My own thoughts are you are building them a des res.

Colin

[binley100]

but you could trample on it every now and again and kill the little slimy molluscs........

[Ananke]

Hmm, I just spread leaves over one of my beds today, never thought about the slimey little beggers moving in. Don't know whether ti rake them all back up now.

[Two_Sheds]

Slugs will hide under a mulch like that, but the leaves won't stay whole for very long, as the weather batters & breaks them up, and worms will pull them down into their burrows too.

What I'd do, because it works quicker and avoids the slugs, is to bag those (wet) leaves up into black sacks and then put those in the empty bed

[donnakebab]

I don't think the snails will eat the dead leaves in preference to your delicious greens. We get free leaves, grass cuttings and wood chippings delivered to our allotment site as it's a by product of a local landscaping business. The leaves and grass are good soil improvers as far as structure goes, my soil was originally clay in areas and I've noticed a huge difference this year. I agree with Two sheds but put something over them like fleece or they will blow away! We use the wood chippings to make paths.

As for the slugs catch em and bag em. I get slugs coming into my kitchen at night. I pick them up with kitchen towel and put them in nappy bags (which I use as dog poo bags...So cheap!) then bin them.

[snohare]

Ta folks, I think I'll miss out my "bright idea" here then, and just stick the leaves in a builder's bag. Any mollusca that want to get to my brassicas must cross the Plain of Pain...I'll be putting down crushed Slug Off.
Don't know why I'm bothering with collecting leaves, just discovered my local castle where I often visit has two compounds for leaves, each 4m by 4m by 1.5m...each full of black, well rotted leafmould.
Just where I can fill a bag or two on my way home, without anyone seeing !