Leaves are not waste and should not be wasted. They are the best and cheapest mulch around
for stopping weeds, building soil and providing food and habitat for predator
bugs. This retired Natural Gardener used to haul bags of excess leaves
away for free to customers through the fall, spreading them to reduce
work and help preferred plants grow for the rest of the year. Now I am taking leaves for my own yard only.
I prefer leaves in clear plastic bags. I don’t take bags heavier than 50 pounds, or with too many sticks.
Nearly every other mulch is a seedbed as soon as it is
spread. Seeds fall on top, find a
crevice and grow. Leaves dry out on top,
and so make a lousy seed bed for anything that falls on top of them. Even a thin layer stops small seeds beneath
them that need sun to sprout. Two inches
or more can smother most seeds as well as small plants and feed the soil enough
to soften it and make it easier to pull the weeds that grow.
The deeper they are laid, the more weeds they can stop
and the more they build the soil and soften it.
A foot or more will grow huge vegetables, while they rot and worms and
pill bugs eat them over the course of the gardening year. That increased fertility can be maintained
with only a few inches per year.
The only thing comparable to leaves for building soil
is compost, which leaves become without any special help, if they aren’t mounded. A mound sheds water, within which leaves can
stay dry and not decompose for years.
Spread flat, a foot of leaves is the equivalent of 6 inches of compost,
which can also grow huge vegetables, plus can be used to build beds
year-round. In late spring and summer,
exposed compost also dries out quickly, but in winter, it is a seed bed for
whatever falls on it.
You can start small cool-weather seeds by spreading an inch of compost on top of leaves and
scattering the seeds in it; for larger seeds in late spring and summer, scatter
seeds on the leaves and cover them with compost. You can also poke large seeds like peas, corn,
beans and squash into the leaves to where it is moist to maintain that cover of
dry leaves while they grow. You can plant starts into leaves as well,
with or without compost on top.
You can warm the leaves to help the seeds and starts grow faster
by putting rocks around them. Rounded
river rocks, just small enough to move with one hand, are easy to move and hold
heat through the night, when the plants need it most. The smaller the rocks, the hotter they get
but the less heat they hold through the night.
Larger rocks can be used to provide a solid edge for mulch beds and keep them
from spreading.
Leaves should be removed from buildings, pavements,
gravel, and paths. They should be left
and built up on open ground, in beds and borders, and mulch-mowed into
lawns. If you have too many, put your excess in clear bags and call me.
