This job we failed to do last year and as yet we haven't done it this year. It is however worth getting on to your to-do list. Autumn brings a vast supply of leaves which make nutritious leaf mould (nutritious that is if you are a plant!)
Rake up the leaves in the autumn and put them in plastic sacks. If you want to be super-environmentally conscious, use the sacks that constantly get posted through your door by charities collecting clothes. Black bin liner bags are just as good (if not better as they don't let in the light so easily). Tie the filled sack closed and stack them up. Leave them where there are out of sight - they need to stand for a year. It will take that time for the leaves to rot down to a first class compost and soil conditioner.
Fill plenty of sacks as this stuff condenses right down. Aim for enough to avoid having to waste money on bags of compost. Mind you, try not to spread the finished product all over your large allotment beds. Use manure on them instead. The leaf mould I will be making shortly will be for use in bags and pots.
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2 comments:
Great stuff,good idea about the charity bags too! We get tons of pizza and chinese takeaway leaflets too,alll compost fodder!
Good idea about the takeaway leaflets! We have a paper shredder and we mix the shredded paper with garden waste and manure to compost it down. Eventually however I expect to be using shredded paper in the hen house, when we get our chickens.
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