This big oak tree dropped part of its leaves and looks like more is coming down soon. Over the last few years I have been trying to harvest all of them along with grass clipping and using as mulch under my muscadine vines and fruit trees. As of now they are working well but it took a couple of years to get what looks like pretty good compost and weed reduction. Can’t say I enjoy gathering the leaves but when I put them around my vines I get a good feeling that I’m providing some nourishment.
I shred the leaves and use them every year as much in the garden. I noticed reduction of grey mold on strawberries where berries lay directly on leaves, comparing to where they hang in the air . My yard is small and no trees, so I collect the leaves from the neighbors, about 30-35 bags full before shredded.
One difference between leaves and woodchips is that the N-C balance is about “equal” with leaves, so when used as a mulch leaves pull no N out of the soil in the short term- wood chips do, but it doesn’t really adversely affect fruit trees because the N is only pulled near the surface and the loss is temporary. (over time repeated wood mulching can actually lead to excessive vegetative growth- a potential problem in the humid regions where deficit irrigation is often not an option).
You can buy a leaf shredding machine or use a mulching mower to convert the leaves into instant usable mulch, but this does require global warming energy- probably more than just changing your composting method into the more ecological approach of a leaf roundup into a metal fence coral that you use to encircle the leaves with a cylinder of fence first set up straight to catch the leaves.
This creates a steep leaf pile that isn’t blown away by wind, and if you mix a bit of soil with it you may get compost in a year. No plastic bags needed- let the air and rain be your allies.
Shredded leaves can be used as compost, BTW but the best bang for the buck method is to use them as a mulch as nature “intended”. In decent soil, the same holds true of all composts. They sustain their most useful form longer if they aren’t incorporated into the soil proper because they break down slower.
As a kid I had to rake leaves from our yard every year. I recall it being something about building character. The day I left home for college, my pop bought a leaf blower.
I collect several pickup loads from my in-town neighbors, and spread them under the fruit trees about a foot thick. There have also been years when I spread them in the vegetable garden in the fall, and use a shovel to turn them under.
I know they say we should shred them, but I dont.
My soil used to be hard clay. Now it’s nice and workable. I don’t need to water nearly as much during the summer, as before.
luckily we don’t have oak up here. the willow and birch leaves crumble easily once they dry so i just go over them with my lawnmower and they’re gone by spring. no need to fertilize the lawn.
I get more leaves than I could possibly use. I use as many as possible. If I had to bag them, I would say close to 500 yard waste bags.
You can’t even see the grass!
Ha! This one probably! He is so smart! It is a problem. I’m getting old and had to hire someone to remove them this year. I could use one of those push blowers, they are amazing! Or an attachment to a lawn tractor. I have to buy either for next year.
Thanks! Jesse is so smart we decided to breed him. He is an AKC registered Australian shepherd. We bred him with an red tricolor and contracted for pick of the litter for stud service. We chose a red merle (Jesse is a blue merle). It was a lucky chance we met this woman who breeds Aussies. She loves Jesse and wants to do it again. Anyway just 2 weeks ago we obtained his son. We named him Chance. I call him Chancey. Still working on an AKC formal name. Jesse is “Drew’s Jesse of Russell Isle” We were thinking something like “Jesse’s Lucky Chance” or “Jesse’s Chance meeting” Still hashing it out.
Here he is. Jesse has one brown eye and one very light blue. Chance has one blue (darker than Jesse’s) and his right eye is green! A rare color not seen much in Aussies.
To get back on subject. An oak tree fell and part of it was hollow. I could not believe what I found inside the tree. It was full of oak compost, I have photos somewhere I can’t find them. Some very nice stuff I put under my trees.
i have more pine / spruce needles than anything here. i actually go to the university leaf pile every fall to get leaves to put in my compost pile. i learned the hard way to avoid fresh oak leaves they collect from the few planted on campus. they take forever to break down.
I have about 30 mature oaks. I rake what I can and put them on the compost pile. I grind up the majority where they fall with a riding mower that has a mulching attachment. The leaf chips disappear pretty quickly. My thinking is that the lawn gets the benefit of the leaves without being smothered.
last fall i came across a big pile of 4-5 yr old spruce needles that was left from a cutting where they used a chipper to chip the branches. stuff was nearly all black but could see some needles still. filled my truck bed and put it around all my berries.
I generally just run my bagging lawn mower full 3-4 times (which helps empty it out as well) and dump the now chopped leaves into my beds.
This year, however, the early snow and our plumbing problems (7 weeks in a hotel room away from my garden) has kept me from cleaning up my leaves.
I always try to stash 2-3 yard waste bags of leaves in my garage for use in the spring (they make a great addition to a compost bin/tumbler when I have a ton of greens early in the season).
my mulching in this way has almost solved my backyard spring flooding problem, or more appropriately it has made it a neighbor’s backyard flooding problem.
