Last Autumn I wrote an article under the title, This Year’s Leaves … Next Year’s Mulch, which was well-received by a lot of people.  It came back to mind today so I thought I’d follow it up.

This past year has not been a good gardening year for me.  Firstly a long period of indifferent health kept me away from anything very energetic, then a plague of apparently insecticide-resistant white fly followed by blight decimated much of what I had managed to grow, both vegetables and flowers.  I have not even been keeping this blog very much alive.

One thing that did grow well, however, was the harvest of leaves from both our own trees and the neighbouring churchyard.  Although that does at this time of year generate something of a chore, clearing them away from the lawn and the borders, there is a silver lining to the cloud.  As last year’s title put it, this year’s leaves can become next year’s mulch.  At least, they can!  It all depends on a bit of effort now.

Leaves left at their full size will often (depending on the local climate) take two or three years to fully degrade to give a nice mulch, and I’m not satisfied that last year’s are yet quite ready.  The process can be speeded, however, by shredding them.  I do own a leaf blower and vacuum but that also has succumbed to some dread disease.  Once again its engine won’t start. So today I raked leaves into piles, got out the lawn mower, raised its blades to their highest position and used it as a vacuum cleaner, “hoovering” up the piles of leaves.  Last year I manage to run out of petrol at this stage, but this year all went well.

Leaves compact into much less space when they’re shredded but I decided today that after the first run they were not small enough so created two heaps of the shredded material and ran the mower over them again.  So now I have a still smaller heap of more finely chopped leaf, now safely transferred to my leaf mould bin – actually just a wooden frame surrounded by chicken wire to stop everything from blowing way.

Next year at this time I should have a really good heap of mulch to spread on the borders.  Don’t waste those leaves by dumping or burning them.  Mulch them.

Tags: autumn garden, Compost, leaf mold, leaf mould