Re: Leaf Shredder

More on leaf mold--I get a load of leaves from the town each year.  These
have already been sucked up through a huge, powerful blower and are
shredded already as a result.  The town guys are happy not to have to drive
10-12 miles to the landfill and instead bring me the leaves.  I try to get
them to do it on a rainy day, so the leaves will be damp.

Different kinds of leaves break down at different rates.  Willow oak leaves
take the longest in my piles; maples and tulip poplar leaves go quickly.
White pine needles disappear faster than loblolly pine needles.

The pile, when dumped from the compressor truck, is usually about 5-6 feet
high and makes a windrow 10-15 feet long and 8 feet wide.  Considering the
compression, that's a lot of leaves!  Within a few days, it's steaming
away.  If you stick your arm down in the pile, you can't hold your hand
there long for the heat.  By spring the volume is down to about half what
it was, and at some places the leafmold is ready to use.  It takes me about
2 years to use up a pile, so there's always some going at some stage.  I
like to use it as mulch at the "chunky" stage, when it is partly broken
down but still recognizable.  In the vegetable garden, the mulch is dug in
in the fall and after 15 years has transformed grim red clay to wonderful
soil that requires no fertilizer or treatment to grow bushels of great
veggies.  In the perennial borders, the stuff is absorbed more slowly but
has the effect that I can plant new things from gallon containers without
using a shovel--the soil is so loose and leafy.  The water-holding capacity
of the soil is also greatly enhanced, as we learned in this summer's
drought.  Rain or irrigation sinks right in and is held as if in a sponge.

More "finished" leaf mold, mixed half leaf mold with one-fourth peat and
one  one-fourth perlite is my potting soil for the many large container
plants I manage each year.  In the fall cleanup that goes on the vegetable
beds, too.

I've come to prefer leaf mold to compost.  It's cleaner, easier to handle,
and usually free of weed seeds or disease spores that could infect garden
plants.

What, if any, are the drawbacks?  Well, the sucker used by the town also
gathers a fair amount of trash, so I have to pick cans, plastic and some
glass from my compost as I use it.  I keep a trash can handy near the piles
so this stuff can be thrown in as it appears.  There may also be some
gravel or sand betimes.  One year there were evidently quite a few poison
ivy leaves in the mix, and that caused a bit of trouble until they decayed
and lost their potency.  Some people object to the appearance of the leaf
piles beside the garage, but if they don't like it they can stay inside.

But on the whole, the benefits far outweigh the detractions.  Leaf mold is
the greatest!

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
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