This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Last year's leaves

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

In a message dated 99-03-21 10:05:15 EST, you write:

<< I have piles of last year's leaves on my garden beds that I need to turn
into
 the soil before I can plant.  Problem is I have no way of chopping them up;
 will this be a problem when I turn them into the soil?  I plan on amending
the
 soil with composted manure when I turn the leaves in  - I am hoping this will
 help speed up decomposition of the  leaves.  Any suggestions and/or thoughts
 on this.
  >>


Hi Debbie,
   Too bad you don't have a lawn mower to chop up your leaves. Perhaps you
could borrow a neighbors. I wouldn't turn them into the beds before planting,
it might cause some problems. 
   I like to run over my leaves in the fall with a mower twice and then leave
them on the beds as mulch for the winter. In the late winter-early spring I
rake them off and put them in the compost bins so that the soil will warm up.
(I'm told this is necessary, bit I've never tried just leaving them on the
beds) The soil on the beds never really freezes and in the spring it's not
soggy, but just like crumbly chocolate cake with lots of worms. I also have a
mess of leaves to which I add grass clippings and table scraps all spring and
summer. I like to turn my compost piles 3-4 times in the first 2-3 weeks once
it starts heating up so that by mid summer I have quite a bit of finished
compost to use when I need it, especially  in the late  summer and fall. You
might try putting your leaves in a compost pile, but if they're not chopped
up, it may take quite a while to break them down to usable compost.
   Hope this helps a bit.
Jim Kirker
Boston Mass


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index