The heavy rain and gusty winds of the last few days have knocked many of the leaves off our trees and onto our lawns. Before
you rake, bag and deposit your leaves at the bottom of your driveway for pick
up, consider the many ways that you can use your leaves to enrich your soil and
feed your plants.
Leaves are truly nature’s
fertilizer. Plus, the worms go crazy in leaf-enriched soil and I’ve found that
adding them to your garden is one of the best ways to boost your worm population.
Because of this, I have become a leaf collector. This time of the year, I find
it difficult to pass by the bags of leaves that have been placed beside the
road for pick up and occasionally find myself ‘adopting’ some of these
abandoned bags, bringing them home to enrich my own gardens. I know I’m not the
only leaf-thief out there (hello Donna!) and as much as I enjoy collecting a bounty of leaves,
I would also love to see more homeowners take advantage of this inexpensive
soil amendment in their own gardens.
Of course, if they’re such a great
natural soil enhancer, why not just leave them on the lawn to break down? Why
bother raking them up? The reason is simple: whole leaves left on the lawn will
form a barrier above the grass that if thick enough, will smother your lawn.
Before adding leaves to a garden or compost bin, they should be shredded into
small pieces with a lawn mower, leaf blower/vacuum or leaf shredder.
Shredding increases the surface
area of the leaves, allowing them to break down quicker. It also prevents them
from clumping together into unworkable layers. And now that you’ve got plenty
of shredded leaves, here are five easy ways to use them:
1)
The first and perhaps most important thing to do with your
fall leaves is to rake them into a very big pile, take a short run and jump
into the leaves with as much gusto as you can muster. Invite your kids,
neighbours and anyone else you can think of to join you. Once you’ve gotten
that out of your system, re-rake the leaves into a big pile and shred them into
small pieces – I use my lawn mower.
2)
Take some of those shredded leaves and spread them over the
bare soil in the vegetable garden. This will help prevent winter soil erosion
and come spring, the decomposing leaves can be dug into the garden to provide
valuable nutrients. The leaves may also be used as a mulch in garden pathways
to suppress weeds and keep walkways tidy.
3)
In late autumn, I mow the lawn gathering up the mulched leaves
and organic grass clippings as I go. Once the mower bag is filled with this
lovely mixture, it’s emptied into black garbage bags. I then toss in a
shovelful of soil or compost and a sprinkle of water. A few holes are poked
into the bags with a screwdriver to allow good air circulation. The bags are
placed at the back of my cold frames where they will start to turn into
nutrient-rich leaf compost. As a side benefit, the leaf bags will provide added
insulation to my winter cold frames. Come spring, I open a bag whenever I need
some rich organic leaf compost. If you’ve already raked and shredded your
leaves, you can still gather them into garbage bags, add some soil or finished
compost and a splash of water. Poke holes and place aside for the winter.
4)
Put a few bags of shredded leaves aside to be used as an
insulating winter mulch around perennials and roses. After the garden has been
cleaned up for the year, apply a thick layer of shredded leaves over the soil
surface. If you have any compost, put a bit on top of the leaves to help them
break down and come spring, you won’t need to remove them. They’ll just
continue to decompose and add organic matter to the garden.
5)
Use any surplus shredded leaves to start a new compost pile.
Form a one-metre square pile of leaves, enclosing it with inexpensive chicken
wire and a few wooden stakes for support. Toss in a few shovelfuls of soil or
finished compost to start the pile ‘cooking’ and during the winter add your cut
up kitchen scraps. Turn occasionally to allow oxygen to reach the centre of the
pile and use the finished product next summer to enrich your gardens.
