Fallen leaves are a gold mine to gardener
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To the editor:
In response to Capital News Nov. 4: City Blown Away By Demand For Leaf Pickup, by Jennifer Smith.
Those “pesky” fallen leaves are a goldmine to me. Every autumn I collect bagged leaves from my neighbours to bring home to make into mulch for next year for my garden. They are free, the mulch keeps my gardens moist so I can water much less often, and as they break down they add valuable nutrients to the soil to feed my plants—the only fertilizer needed! I invite you to join me in this mimicking of nature’s way.
Small leaves (i.e. from weeping birch) can be used as is. Larger leaves work much better if you shred them first. This really reduces the volume and speeds up the rotting process. I spread the leaves over my small patch of grass and mow them with a neighbour’s electric mower. I also throw down all the smaller debris from fall clean up of my flower and vegetable gardens. Everything is shredded. In raking this up, the smaller particles stay on the grass thus adding a thin mulch of nutrients and water-holding capacity to the lawn.
Another way to shred is to mow in one spot so all shreddings get shot at a wall or a standing board to contain them and eliminate raking. Another option is to use a string trimmer in a garbage can.
I use the shredded leaves to layer into my compost pile or to put directly onto garden beds right now.
I let the small leaves I get from neighbours rot in coloured plastic bags or under a coloured tarp over winter. The rotting process does not happen under clear plastic. If the leaves are very dry I squirt some water into the bags to help with rotting.
Amazingly, come spring, there will be earthworms busily making soil in there.
Some bags are stacked around dormant large pots of perennials to insulate them for winter.
The tiny leaves from my honey locust tree are left where they drop in the garden to form an attractive, no-work, year-round mulch. The ones that fall on the driveway are just swept up and tossed onto the garden.
Do not use walnut leaves. They contain a substance that inhibits growth of some plants.
If you cannot use your leaves a keen gardener in your neighbourhood might be delighted to have this free mulching material.
Gwen Steele,
Okanagan
Xeriscape Association
(www.okanagan
xeriscape.org),
Kelowna
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