Leaf Mould Question from Newbie

[CADS]

Hi

My neighbour has 3 bags of leaves sitting in his garden in sealed black rubbish bags. They have been sitting there for about 3 weeks.

The bags don't have any holes and the leaves were wet when he raked them. Can I take this off his hands and still use to make my own leaf mould? even though they have not had any ventilation for 3 weeks?

I have recently taken over my first allotment so I still have alot to learn about composting/leaf mould making.

Thanks
CADS

[piskieinboots]

Take them by all means, but do spike holes in as soon as possible - it should be fine, takes around a year though for the leaves to rot to useable mould

[brooklynodog]

Since the council provided us with recycling plastic bins, I use my old plastic dustbins with 1/4 inch holes drilled in all round. They make great leaf mold containers as you can get in with the fork to turn it all over whioch seems to speed up the process.

[lez]

I have often wondered why they advise putting leaves in a wire mesh cage. I have tried it and the results were not very good. they say use black bags so this year I am going to try a big 3' x 3' compost bin lined with black plastic aswell as the wire mesh method. I have loads of leaves from work and will put them on top of my chopped up runners, soak them and see how I get on. I have heard that the thinking now is to use the plastic method instead of mesh. the mesh lets them dry out to quick.

[Two_Sheds]

So, it's leaf collecting time again. Last year I bought black sacks from all the main high street shops to see which was best for leafmould.

Wilkinson's "garden sacks made from recycled plastic" were far and away the best: while all the rest disintegrated in daylight, Wilko's sacks were so strong that they are being reused again this year. Well worth the extra money, imo.

Annoyingly, they changed the packaging since last year, but I'm pretty sure these are the same product

Or it could be these

[alan639]

I use the large 1 tonne builders merchants bags they deliver sand and gravel in. I filled 2 bags last year and they have reduced in size so I'm going to put them both into 1 bag and leave them for another year. just started to fill 2 more

[alldigging]

Do you trawl the streets or just your own gardens?

[Bren In Pots]

We collected two trampled down trug worth from the back garden this afternoon.

[horticultural_hobbit]

All the leaves have now descended on our little bit of hobbitland. Don't really anticipate any more coming down really. Have collected what feels likes tonnes. Tend to be what falls on our drive, though I do ask the neighbours for theirs too. On average, each wednesday I would collect about 13 bags before the bin men came. This has filled 12 raised beds and four builders bags. Exposed, air and moisture get to it and help the bacterial breakdown. It is a lot more than last year, where I had only filled one builders bag at Christmas. So I feel a bit smug this year! Think I may have turned or dug over the pile once or twice last year. This year, that pile of leaf mold is still only half cooked; but one builders bag lined three small raised beds, i think. More leaves were fathered to sit on top.

[alldigging]

I'm tempted to go and get some but the bulk are in the next but one street and I'm going to feel a pillock collecting them on my own and I know no one else will come with me

[Two_Sheds]

Do you trawl the streets or just your own gardens?

None fall on my own garden (on my estate the gardens are car parks, tut). I collect from leafy roads (avenues) & the bike lanes, where fallen leaves are slippery and dangerous

I'm tempted to go and get some but ...I'm going to feel a pillock collecting them on my own

I'm not proud: it does get annoying when old men stop to tell me how to do it properly (!) so now I wear my earbuds

[tumbling tom]

Well that's it. Been to the park today for my first ever collection of leaves and filled ten 300l sacks up, should give me a handful of mould, lol.

Totally lost my all my shyness within minutes but several dog walkers did wonder what I was up to. Had one lady asking me if I worked for the council and telling me it was disgusting the pathetic tools that the give us to tidy the leaves from the park with.