Fall leaves are a valuable resource for plants, providing essential nutrients and promoting soil fertility. They can be used to fill raised garden beds with soil by installing layers of leaves 6 inches thick at a time, compressing them by walking on them and then wetting them. The fill can be divided into three layers: a bottom layer, a middle layer, and a top layer.
To use fall leaves effectively, spread whole leaves in landscape beds, but it is important to add a readily available nitrogen source to ensure long-term benefits. Leaf mulch keeps the soil cool while blocking light to weeds, and several vegetables like bulb onions, pumpkins, and potatoes have shown higher yields. Leaf leaves are also one of the best ingredients for healthy vegetable garden soil, and the fall gold collected can fuel the transformation of soil into black gold.
Fall leaves are a cost-effective and easy-access way to take up space in raised beds, allowing you to put your garden waste to good use. By using newspapers as a filling material, you can save money on soil and create a more sustainable garden. Additionally, leaf mulch can be applied to perennial, shrub, and tree borders/beds to protect roots from cold and suppress unwanted weeds. Overall, fall leaves offer a cost-effective and easy-access way to use garden waste effectively.
📹 How To Use Leaves In The Garden. The Dangers Of Using Leaves Incorrectly. | Gardening In Canada
Old tree leaves are a staple of fall but it seems wasteful to simply throw them into the garbage. However, applying these to your …
When should I remove leaves from my garden?
The consensus is that it is not okay to remove dead leaves from flower beds until mid-to late spring, specifically when nighttime temperatures have been 50+ for a week. This is to create safe havens for pollinators to lay their eggs and hibernate within. The Xerces Society agrees that in northern states, mid-late April should be the earliest time to consider cutting back perennials and clearing garden debris. However, entomologist Dr.
Doug Tallamy states that there is no ecological basis for this general rule, as every species comes out on its own schedule, from early spring to late summer or even September. There is no magic time when you can go out and do whatever you want in your landscape without disturbing what’s there.
What should you not put in a raised bed?
Raised beds are ideal for growing a wide variety of edible plants, but not all plants can or should be grown in them. Some plants grow too large for raised beds, such as potatoes, asparagus, artichokes, rhubarb, corn, wheat, rice, and winter squash. Raised beds can be challenging to maintain due to the need for ladders, which can be dangerous for harvesting plants. It is essential to consider the specific needs of each plant when choosing a raised bed, as not all plants can thrive in raised beds. Therefore, it is essential to carefully consider the type of plant and the space available for each plant to ensure the best growth and care.
Is it okay to leave dead leaves in soil?
Fallen leaves enrich the soil for plants by releasing nutrients and improving soil structure. They also serve as insulation, protecting roots from extreme temperatures and sheltering seeds for spring blooming. In woodlands like The Morton Arboretum’s East Woods, decaying leaves protect roots from extremes and shelter seeds. Mulch, used in gardens, mimics nature’s creation of a cozy, nourishing layer of leaf litter, with partially decayed leaves being the attractive dark brown mulch used in all Arboretum gardens.
How long does it take for leaves to decompose in a garden?
Leaves are biodegradable, thereby allowing bacteria and other living organisms to decompose them. The decomposition of whole leaves is a slower process, whereas cut leaves decompose more rapidly and provide essential nutrients to the soil. They can be utilized as mulch in gardens and flower beds, and composting can enhance the aesthetic appeal of lawns and gardens by reducing the dispersion of leaves.
Do decaying leaves make soil acidic?
Fallen oak leaves are known for their acidity, with an average pH rating of 4. 5 to 4. 7. However, they only temporarily lower soil acidity when broken down, returning the soil to its original balance. Even large amounts of fallen oak leaves do not make a lasting difference on soil pH. If you need a pH modifier, consider using sphagnum moss. Fallen oak leaves also serve other functions in your yard, such as insulate plant roots, conserve moisture in the soil, and create beneficial microorganism environments as they break down. Therefore, while they may not permanently affect soil acidity, they can be a valuable addition to your yard.
Are leaves good for garden beds?
Fall leaves are a valuable source of essential nutrients for vegetable gardens, as they provide over a dozen plant nutrients from tree roots. Synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, often contain only three essential nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Instead of treating leaves as waste, consider your yard as a green manure crop for your garden. The University of Florida found that good yields of crops like cucumbers, tomato, and greens can be expected after 2 to 3 years of applications of at least 20 tons of oak leaves per acre annually.
Can you fill a raised bed with leaves?
Layering yard debris in raised beds can improve soil structure, fertility, moisture retention, weed suppression, and soil aeration. Organic matter in yard debris improves soil structure and fertility over time, providing essential nutrients for plant growth and supporting a healthy soil ecosystem. It acts as a natural mulch, reducing evaporation and conserving water. A thick layer of yard debris can also serve as a barrier to weed growth, reducing the need for manual weeding and keeping the garden tidy.
As yard debris decomposes, it creates air pockets in the soil, promoting better soil aeration and root growth. This allows plant roots to access oxygen more easily and facilitates the exchange of gases and nutrients in the soil. Incorporating layers of yard debris into raised bed filling can contribute to the long-term health and productivity of your garden, as well as save money on soil costs.
What leaves should not be composted?
Leaves of woody plants, such as holly, arbutus, cedar, pine, and oak, are more difficult to compost due to their slower decomposition rate.
How to turn leaves into soil?
The creation of leaf compost entails the shredding and collection of leaves, their incorporation into a compost pile, the storage of the shredded leaves, the addition of nitrogen and carbon elements, the turning of the compost, and the utilization of the resulting compost. This process ensures the creation of a healthy and nutritious environment for plants.
How long do leaves take to decompose?
Leaves are biodegradable, thereby allowing bacteria and other living organisms to decompose them. The decomposition of whole leaves is a slower process, whereas cut leaves decompose more rapidly and provide essential nutrients to the soil. They can be utilized as mulch in gardens and flower beds, and composting can enhance the aesthetic appeal of lawns and gardens by reducing the dispersion of leaves.
How long do leaves take to decompose in soil?
Leaves are biodegradable, thereby allowing bacteria and other living organisms to decompose them. The decomposition of whole leaves is a slower process, whereas cut leaves decompose more rapidly and provide essential nutrients to the soil. They can be utilized as mulch in gardens and flower beds, and composting can enhance the aesthetic appeal of lawns and gardens by reducing the dispersion of leaves.
📹 Using Fall Leaves in Garden Bed
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I’ve been creating leaf mould for a long time down here in Texas. It’s all about the long game with our Live Oak leaves! They’re small oval leaves that are VERY thick. So they take about 3 entire years to break down, even after shredding. I simply vacuum them up with a leaf blower, which shreds the leaves. Then I deposit the leaves in the same shady area every year. It’s now become a “mulch garden”! Then I wait. Actually I have some humus I can take every year from the older areas in that same leaf patch. So when they do finally break down!! Woot! WOOT!!! It’s THE GREATEST humus/soil additive on the planet!! Next to mycorrhizae, it’s my biggest gardening secret. And together, they work a treat! Also, my Oaks are quite large, and very old, and I make sure NOT to take ALL the leaves away from the tree’s drip zone. Bcuz it gets so hot down here, the trees NEED the soil protection a layer of leaves provides as mulch. Which works equally well as mulch in the very cold Winters. (Not usually quite as cold as Canadian Winters tho!) But yes, I’m a BIG FAN of leaf mould! 🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂
What would you recommend as a compost accelerator? I generally use grass clippings,kitchen vegetable scrap waste,coffee grounds, leaves,a bit of earth and just male urine to make my compost. I did read that a combination of flat beer and ammonia works but I have not tried it. I try to turn my compost bin and use a old broomstick to punch holes in the compost to get air circulation into the compost. Just wondering if you have any tips for keeping a compost pile hot to speed up decomposition. I recently transplanted a lot of perennials in my flower garden and used leaves as a mulch to protect the roots of those plants overwinter. I am in Ontario Canada.
It is winter here in Edmonton and I use a wood stove to heat the house. I have lots of wood ash! Can I add those on top of my 25 elevated garden? So far, few weeks ago, I added the chicken coop (poop and wood chips that were in the coop till Spring 2021 and pass the summer fermenting and composting in the chicken run), and shredded leaves on top of those garden. Now, what about wood ash? Can these be beneficial to the soil in the garden?
This is my practice: I not only collect and shred my own leaves in the fall, I accept donations from friends and neighbours. The guy across the street does not even bag his, he just empties his leaf vacuum bag into my big wire bin under my large blue spruce. Tip: those leaf vacuums also shred the leaves. I shred my own leaves in a plastic trash bin using a string weed trimmer. It reduces the volume to 1/3. Shredded leaves are kept in a plastic bin next to my backyard composter, and are mixed with kitchen scraps daily. The compost never gets hot, only warm, and the worms love it. The compost never freezes in the centre over winter but stays around 10° C ( Zone 6 here). The vast majority of my shredded leaves go into the wire bin, about one cubic metre. Shredded leaves gradually decay in the wire bin, and I draw from that bin to mulch potatoes, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and other plants in the spring and summer. I never dig them in, they just continue to decompose on top of the soil. No till. I see no signs of nitrogen deficiency, and I don’t need to water or weed very much. By late summer, the leaves in my bin (now getting low) are pretty well decayed. I remove them and store them in buckets to make room for the next “harvest.” These decayed leaves seem to turbo-charge the compost. The worms are loving it and the kitchen scraps don’t last long! It’s 8°C outside and 25°C in the compost. The one thing I have not tried is adding some decayed leaves to my houseplant soil. Always learning!
I am in Ohio, USA. I look at leaf mould as a good “base”” material for garden soil. I’ve used my rototiller to crumble my leaves into a leaf mould pile. A day after doing that, the pile is a little hotter than I wish it would be (140° F/60° C), So Ill be stirring it up a little to cool it off. In the spring, what resource is there to tell me what to add for each specific plant I want to grow in it? For example, I know flowering plants (to include tomatoes, peppers, etc; beans; cucumbers; and flowers themselves) like and need Calcium and magnesium; Brussel Sprouts are heavy consumers of boron. What resource is there to guide me on other additives should I use on my leaf mould to make them ‘perfect’ for each type of plant?
I add mulched leaves to my red worm (vermi) compost. Use old, cool manure. Coffee grounds, not too much. Veggies, weeds and grocery store throw aways. Some sand for the worm digestion. Some forest soil for microorganisms. Old hay. Triple insulate in the winter with plastic sheeting and hay or leaves in between, then the snow covers that. I live in N Idaho. On Groundhog day, the worms are on the top of the pile and it’s ready for potting soil.
I have 7 oaks on my property. At first, I use to sweep up all the leaves which were on my deck and cement . This equalled 30 bags of leaves every year which I let the garbage man pick up. Then, I had a friend take my leaves as he used it on his country driveway. Then, I started to keep the leaves and save it for mulch. Now, I mow and let the leaves just stay on the ground. Better than the dirt! I also sweep up the leaves in to the garden as much as possible. I still have at least 15 bags of leaves which I use and spread around eventually around the property. Lately, I’ve been also keeping the logs and limbs that fall from the ground. They luv that.
so the difference between leaf mould and compost is the difference between browns and greens? I’ve seen ratios of greens to browns ranging from 3-1 to 30 to 1. I don’t produce that many greens (from weeds and grass clippings!) certainly not enough to hang with all the browns I get from all the silver maples I get leaves in the autumn. Oh, I’m in Zone 6a (Ohio, USA) other than testing, is there a good test to know that my compost is, or is not compost? I’ve got a large pile here–large to me anyway–70 cm,. perhaps precipitously, I’ve sifted out the finer stuff through a 1/4 inch mesh. It looks dark brown in color. I’ve piled the sifted matter up separately to break it down further if possible, and dumped the undigested grass matting and bigger pieces back into my “Cooking Bin” and turned it. (This one is my moistest, and tallest pile rich with all the worms I can find, temp bacterially controlled at around 90°F-a tad cool, I know).
I understand it will lock up some nitrogen while decompossing., But if the leaves just lay on the ground and are not burried into the soil the temporary loss in nitrogen should only be at a very shallow level of the soil. So in practice it makes next to no difference since the root of most plants are way below the affected area anyways. So this would only be a problem if you are planting out seedlings?
Hi Ashley, thanks for this article. I just found your website and like it a lot. I tried to use white oak leaves a couple of years ago, broke them up with my lawn mower, spread them 4″ thick on two of my raised beds. Come spring, they were broken down quite a bit but I couldn’t grow anything. Any transplants just died. I finally realized that the leaves were sucking all the nitrogen out and that oak leaves can take up to 3 yrs to break down. Weeds won’t even grow there. My question can I use my neighbor’s red maple leaves to make leaf mold? Can I put it on top of my beds this fall and and add a few supplements or should I make a wire enclosure, place the chopped up maple leaves, try to keep it moist, and try to use it in the spring? Thanks for any help. I live on Cape Cod zone 4/5.
Shredded leaves on top are the best cover for a garden I think. Works great as Mulch and is processed slowly into the soil. They will suck Nitrogen if you put a bunch IN the soil though. Leaf Mold is a present from heaven. I make it always but the best of all bests is to scratch around under an old oak tree in the woods for the top 1/2 inch or so of that beautiful black stuff. A couple of five gallon buckets of that will revitalize a good size garden.
I’ve never understood why you are supposed to put layers of green ‘nitrogen’ material and ‘carbon’ layer versus just mixing them together in the compost bin. Leaves and wood chippings from tree trimming I just lay on top of the garden and pathways – seems to be working great and wow it saves a lot of turning or piling up compost.
I’m going to put a lot of leaves in my compost pile this fall. If I’m finding that the garden clippings and kitchen scraps aren’t enough for balancing out the nitrogen I’ll get some coffee grounds from local coffee shops. Usually it’s not too cold here in winter (high of around 0C midwinter, rarely below -15C) so hopefully since my pile is big and may have coffee grounds it’ll be warm enough? We’ll see…
I heard that you are suppose to use 2 parts brown material to one part green being table scraps. Is this true? Also, in spring and summer we don’t have brown leaves, what else can be use? Grass clippings are green, right? Can you use cut up cardboard as a brown since we have lots because we are ordering lots on-line right now? If it is 2 to 1 we need more brown, what do you suggest?
Where I live people bag tons of leaves each fall because they do not want leaves on their grass lawn during the winter. I get these leaves and dump them in my garden where they sit all winter. In the spring I till them into my soil. About two weeks before I plant my vegetables I till the soil one more time. I try not to over till. I have my soil tested every few years and the soil has always been fine. I guess I am doing the right thing?
I am not a fan of shredding leaves with the lawnmower because it burns fuel and releases more greenhouse effect gases. To accelerate leaves composting, I pick earthworms when they hide under containers, or after a heavy rain. Just a few earthworms will multiply quickly, chomp the leaves and transform them into soil far more faster.
I live in Anchorage AK. One year I got a bunch of leaves and shredded them. Covered them with 6mil poly. It melted snow! Next spring uncovered and found huge dried spongelike mass. Shredded leaves one more time and tilled them into a bed. Best basil ever! So if you shred enough wet leaves and trap the vapor, they will heat up quite a bit without any greens. Not thermophilic, but that isn’t what we are shooting for here.
I have a balcony garden and have been keeping cuttings and green scraps (mostly leaves and twigs) in an open tray. Almost all of it has dried out and turned yellow. Was thinking to add it in small parts to my potting mix but now not so sure. Any thoughts on what I should do with it? Am in London (UK). Thanks!
I use the mower but I also blow leaves into a few hot spots for fungi at the edges of my yard. I make big piles and let them sit then in spring when I need soil I pull back the top layers and shovel out the soil underneath into the cart and use it. I don’t need to do anything wacky just let the fungi do its work and it simply rotates prventing the nitrogen issue with new leaves.
I put about 1/3 of my leaves in my duck and chicken pen, the rest go to the top of my gardens. The chickens break up the leavs and the ducks filter them in the pools, i give them. I empty the pools into a 5 gal bucket with holes and gather the soil. I put this on the top of the soil during the year and mix it in in the spring. It has worked great for me. Thanks for the info.
In the fall, our community garden has recently started shredding leaves & putting them in bags with small holes, then applied as a top dressing in April, just before planting late spring veggies such as tomatoes. Sounds like we should hold the leaves until the following fall. Given that we don’t have room for the bags & no shade, what would you suggest? Are we doing any good having the leaves in bags for a short time or would it be the same as top dressing the shredded leaves in the fall? We are in Tacoma. Zone 8b. Thank you.
Okay I totally screwed up. I had my husband mow over the leaves in November to chop them up and collect them in his bagger. Well we container garden and he poured said chopped leaves on containers. He started to dig them in and turning them under. So great now we are going to have Nitrogen depleted soil. Now what? How do we fix it. I am guessing with some slow release Nitrogen fertilizer, but what kind and how much? Would Alfalfa pellets work? Ugh I am just so upset because we need this supplemental food to make it through the year. We don’t have a ton of money to throw supplements at it either. I could just kick myself. Any help is so much appreciated.
Hi Ashley, thanks for this super informative article. What about the #leavetheleaves advice re: fallen leaves on lawns and mulching for garden beds over the winter? Would you recommend this for both the lawn and gardens as well as the method you describe here to turn it into healthy garden soil? Do you recommend leaving a layer or two of leaves on the lawn and gardens? And if yes, how much is too much? Thanks!!
I collected bags of leaves in neighborhood and ran my mower and chopped it up alot then mixed dried horse and cow poo, put in 3 barrels w a wood top, and in spring put in 15×20 garden, tilled extensively, garden did well, also put fresh cow,horse poo in separate barrels, filled w water, let set in sun and sprayed on soil when plants grew up, seemed ok
I mow my leaves twice to fluff them. I out them in a wheel barrow and wet them lightly. After mixing well, I put them in a trash can with a few decent holes drilled in the sides and bottom. I set it in a sunny location. If I feel froggy, I will remove them, blend them, and put them in the trash can. If I am in a big hurry, which is not often, I will add straight nitrogen in that mix to make things speed up considerably. One way to kick start regular leaf composting is to mix in a shovelful of your garden soil into it. You CAN add in some sulfur free molasses to boost the microbe activity. Or just plain sugar. Of course you have to mix with water. Be careful with leaves from the walnut family. Too many of those not composted long enough can result in poor plant response.
In the summer I build my ” yuck” bucket. Rain water and every weed I pull and a handful of leaf mould goes in to create a bacteria rich slurry. Come fall I stuff garbage bags with leaves. I take my 1 gallon watering can and about 1L of slurry and top off with rain water. I then water each bag with this. Usually by the end of the following July my new leaf mould is ready.
I tried making compost years ago but despite the leaves baking in the FL sun it never got hot enough to decompose. Maybe it was too concentrated a pile and was supposed to be spread out evenly….I even spritzed it with hose water after about a week of letting it sit but it started to attract flies and eventually started smelling bad. huge fail. i ended up burying it like 4ft deep under the mistaken belief that that the leaves over years would become something good for the sandy soil but now i wonder if it only made a bacterial or mold problem….
Great article, except you missed 2 options for radically speeding up the decomposition process of leaves. 1: you can add a high nitrogen source such as piss or chicken manure in order to balance the carbon/nitrogen ratio and increase the nitrifying bacteria. This will rapidly break down leaves. Another option is to add specific mushroom species that specialize in destroying leaves, such as Blewits – a delicious purple mushroom.
Leaves fall after the growing season so they can be tilled into the garden soil where they will readily decompose before next year’s planting. So you can stock pile shredded leaves to use as mulch next season, OR pile to make leaf mold, but it’s also just fine to till them into the garden – yes they will tie up nitrogen as they decompose, but this is over by next season. 😊
I have lots of leaves and grass clippings in about equal mass, been combining them into large piles for years but have yet to see any change. Just white mold like hair grow a bit in spots. No heat ever. I used to turn them, tried adding beer, lime, dirt, water, etc, but nothing works. After 4 years I checked again and there was a little bit of black slime on the leaves around the edges sort of like what you get out of your roof gutter. That’s it. Just piles and piles of leaves and grass like a mummy. Oh, I live in Alaska, so that probably matters.
Useful information in this article but this year I’m too tired to set this up(and no lawnmower). I’m just going to let it decompose where the leaves fall this year. Except I’m going to shove small amounts of leaves into each of my many pots to decompose. LOL. I’m going to top dress my garden bed with whole leaves. But not to much that it creates a layer of leaves. I’m glad now I know it takes a year to decompose in Canada. I put so many whole leaves on top of one of my garden beds that there was a whole layer of it. I was shocked to see it didn’t decompose by April. Haha. It blocked my Purple Perella seeds from germinating.
I bag mow leaves, lay them out in a row on top of grass in need of mowing along with spent straw from my strawbale garden, bag mow it all up again with my Ego mower and mulch the to of my raised beds about 4 -5 inches deep. Then I cover it all with deer (like bird) netting and then water down with buckets of water that I pee into. Over the winter everything pretty much decomposes and it all gets tilled in in the spring, no nitrogen problems. MY UNDERSTANDING –> Nitrogen that’s absorbed during decomposition eventually gets released again at the end. It’s more a matter of what stage of decomposition the leaves are at. Combine some grass clippings (greens) with leaves (browns) and watered down pee (nitrogen) and save yourself the trouble of bagging and waiting.
I must be missing something because in a lush forest it’s layer upon layer every year, nothing mulched, only rain, nitrogen, potassium, etc… from the natural breakdown. Fallen leaves are greens to my understanding. I truly believe in the garden of eden method. Your explanation of leaf mold is wonderful for people to understand the natural balance in the soil. Microbes do better undisturbed in the layer upon layer method. Great article and thank you
My compost method is to start it in spring with mostly nitrogen based scraps. Rotten veggies and garden cut offs throughout the summer. Then in the fall I add Carbon based waste, which is mostly leaves. I add carbon till I feel like I have a 40% Nitrogen to 60% Carbon mix. After this I pour 10 gallons of compost tea over it and mix. 4 months later my compost is perfect and ready to sift for seedling mix. This is only for mild climate winter as i am in Vancouver.
While leaf mold is an incredible product worth making in its own right I just want to debunk the notion that many people simply won’t have the necessary resources available to balance nitrogen:carbon ratios for composting leaves. The fact is literally everybody produces a high N byproduct of their own metabolism that works wonders when added to a leaf pile that we call urine. Simply pee on the pile every day for the first month or two depending on the size of the pile, or when your context prohibits doing so directly ( due to the risk of catching an indecent exposure charge) find a private place and collect into a bucket. I’m not sure the exact ratios off the top of my head, and I basically just wing it going by experience and observation of the piles progress, but one could fairly easily calculate the proper ratios for ideal N:C balance in the pile.
I just let the leaves fall as a hole and at this point I’m too lazy to remove them after the gardening season is over then come spring I remove them. Especially this year first year growing hollyhocks and they did absolutely amazing they are huge except 2 weeks ago they all have gotten rust. Uggghhh I swear I can not get a break. I’m not too worried about it I have gotten rid of almost everything in my garden all the way from root rot to powdery mildew. I wanted to put chicken poop on the top this year then cover it with pine needles which I may do idk its so cold outside it makes me not wana go do anything at this point.
Do you know if i can use walnut leaves rotted down or are they still poison for the land? Sorry i know this is a bit of a specialist thing! I don’t have a lawnmower but i noticed that after a 6 – 7 months the heap was nice and rotten at the bottom and i just used the top stuff at the bottom for the next lot. I have a lot of chestnut and spend hours raking them up, a lot of work but it was worth it.
I have used copious amounts of oak leaves in my humble garden for the last 40 years and I have the most luscious planting soil that you can imagine. If I didn’t use leaves I’d have the most compact concrete clay soil that you could ever imagine. Here’s what WORKS…. First, never use leaves from fruit trees, especially apple. They come with growth inhibitors. If you have oak or similar, use THOSE leaves. I pile my leaves in the fall and around the first of January or so (doesn’t really matter when you put leaves on the garden so long as you do it at least a couple of months before planting time) I gather and put the leaves on the garden. Then a month or so before I plant I run over the leaves with my lawn mower to cut them up. Uncut leaves can go to concrete very quickly….They come a wet boggy mass. Gotta cut them up and then they decay rapidly. To my 60×80 garden I add a couple of bags of pelletized lime and a bag of 13-13-13 fertilizer. Then, a month or so before the plant date I till them lightly into the soil. When first placed the leaves may reach halfway to the knee. After cutting we’re talking a layer an inch or two thick. Lastly the big dig with a tiller a couple of weeks before planting. At this point the soil is healthy, lush, and the best medium you ever soil. Leaves MAKE my garden and they will also make yours if you follow the plan.