Use the Full Bounty of Your Yard

The leaves are beginning to fall.  Why not put them to their full use in your yard?  They are great soil builders.

The key is that they must be mowed to put them to their best use.  Intact leaves encourage run off.  Chopped up leaves can trap water more easily.

This bothers my husband to no end.  He claims, rightly so, that the dust kicked up by mowing leaves dirties the carburetor.  Keep this in mind, if no one in the household can clean a carburetor, the mower may need to be taken to have a tune up.  It’s a reasonable price to pay for a good garden additive.

Mowed leaves can go right on the cleared beds in the fall, layered in 3 to 4 inches in the following order.

• shredded leaves
• grass clippings
• garden compost (preferably from your own garden)
• composted manure
• oat straw

Mowed leaves can also be stored over the winter in heavy duty lawn bags, tied shut with a clip and stored in the garden in a sheltered spot.  If the bags are stored on their sides, the stored leaves should still be dry when the snow melts and the leaves can be used for mulching vegetable beds.

Stored leaves can also be used to build up the compost pile, layered in the pile in the following order:

"Brown" Material:

• mowed fall leaves
• straw
• corn, sunflower, and amaranth stalks, cut up into pieces

"Green" Material:

• plant material (weeds)
• grass clippings
• kitchen scraps
• coffee grounds and egg shells (both VERY good for building compost)

Soil:

• “Starter” for compost, with all the bugs and microbes needed to begin the composting process.

Lastly, leaves make good bedding for chicken coops.

Don’t send those leaves off to the city landfill.  Feed your own soil with those leaves.