Dateline: 12 November 2016
For the first time in my life I'm glad to have a yard full of leaves to clean up. I now see leaves as a valuable crop (of sorts) to be harvested and shredded for mulch in my garden. In the picture above, you can see that I'm shredding leaves with my new vintage MacKissic shredder.
Thanks to Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, I have discovered that when you shred leaves, you end up with an all-natural, nitrogen-and-mineral-rich, totally free, remarkably ideal garden mulch. Layer the confetti of shredded leaves on a garden bed and it will settle down into a tight "felt" layer that won't blow away, yet remains loose and porous. Here's a close-up of some just-shredded leaves...
Will Bonsall shreds TONS of dry leaves in the fall for his gardens. He stores them in a bin and under tarps. He also stores unshredded dry leaves under a tarp for the winter and shreds them in the spring. Thus far, I have mulched several beds in my garden and have filled up these two plywood shipping crates for use next year...
Raking and shredding all those leaves is kind of time consuming. I contemplated getting a leaf blower to save me some raking time (and effort), but I decided against it for this year. As long as the weather stays dry and warmish, I'll Keep shredding all I can. I'm almost to the point where my lawn leaves will be harvested and I'll head into the woods. Here's a picture of Will Bonsall spreading some of his leaf mulch on a grain crop...
You are going to be jump-up-and-down, giggling in glee, absolutely thrilled when you see what chopped leaves and leafmould do for your garden soils! And kicking yourself for not doing it over the past decades (hehe). We got our 8 hp troybilt chipper shredder in the late '80s, and my oh my - its a tie for best investment ever with the troybilt tiller (aside from the land).
ReplyDeleteLeafmould - which is chopped leaves slightly moistened, let to sit under cover about a year, until it is dark fluffy stuff with little recognizable leaf bits left - will improve any soil beyond belief. It loosens clay soil and acts as a sponge to hold water in sandy soil. It attracts earthworms like magic, and those are the real workhorses of soil building. The tree roots range so deep that they bring up lots of minerals that end up in the leaves...and then in your garden soil as you add the chopped leaves and leafmould. Your crops will deplete minerals from your soil, but the leaves replace them. I have a vague grasp of the science, but not enough to explain it to others. But from what I understand, these minerals make your food crops grow better, taste better, be more healthful and allow the plants to resist disease and insect attacks. And even better - they are FREE! And you are taking a problem - leaves everywhere, creating a fire danger, clogging gutters and drains, smothering grass and plants...and turning it into one of your greatest resources! And you don't even need a chipper - you can use a lawnmower. I am scared to death of our chipper, it can chew up 3" thick branches in moments...so I use the push mower to chop the leaves when hubby is too busy to run the chipper. I use pushpins to tack up a tarp against the side of a building, with half the tarp on the ground. Just off the tarp I pile leaves, then go back and forth aiming the mower discharge at the tarp, so the chopped leaves hit the upright part and fall on the horizontal part. Then you can just unpin the tarp and use it to haul the chopped leaves wherever you like.
This all works even better if you have some twiggy brush to chop up with the leaves...the leaves melt into the soil quickly, while the little woody bits last longer and add extra nutrients. For a full explanation of why it is so good to use the twiggy tips of trees, read Michael Phillip's great book 'The Holistic Orchard'. He explains in great detail the many benefits of using ramial (terminal ends of branches) wood chips.
PlantLady
Elizabeth L. Johnson said,
ReplyDeleteMy better half sneers at my use of wood chips as mulch, insisting the acid is going to ruin my crops. Are leaves less acid?
It really depends on your soil and what type of leaves you use. Oak leaves and pine needles can add acid, and if you already have acidic soil it can be too much. But easily and inexpensively remedied by an addition of garden lime to neutralize the acid. A good soil test through your local Cooperative Extension Agency can be invaluable to successful gardening...then you know exactly what type of soil you have and what you may need to add/adjust to make the best possible growing environment for your crops.
DeleteThat said, I only mulch woody crops - fruit trees, berry plants, shrubs - with wood chips. Fresh wood chips pull nitrogen out of the soil to help break them down, so your crops have less to work with. You can still use them, but then you have to add extra composted manure so your plants are well fed...and I never have enough compost. So in a garden situation, I have used wood chips in the paths...the wood chips use up the nitrogen there, making it harder for weeds to survive or thrive
And, no offense intended...but if my "better" half sneered at anything I did (or thought or said)...I would be looking to upgrade to a BETTER better half (hehe).
PlantLady
I get double duty out of my leaves by first using them for bedding in my rabbit house/chicken coop, then adding those (shredded by the chickens and fortified with "clucker muck" and bunny fertilizer pellets) to my gardens each time I clean the coop (about every other week - I actually enjoy cleaning out my coop, knowing I'm 1) keeping my birds healthier, 2) collecting fertilizer and mulch which will make my plants, and by extension my family, healthier, and 3) getting a good workout at the same time!)
ReplyDeleteRuth,
DeleteI like your approach!
I am so disappointed there isn't a mass of comments on this practice - adding chopped leaves to your soil is one of the best things you can do to create awesome growing conditions for your crops. Plus its free!
ReplyDeleteChopped leaves are not only good for mulching, they are also great for building great soil in your beds. When building my raised beds, I try to add 2-4" of composted manure and 6-8" of chopped leaves or leafmould. Within three years of adding as much of each as possible, I have rich black fluffy soil whether I am starting with clay or sand - so fluffy that I can stick my arm into the soil to my elbow. This "fluffiness" (looseness) of the soils allows your plants roots to easily grow and allows air and water to penetrate easily to the root zone.
PlantLady
Hi Plant Lady,
DeleteI appreciate your comments on this topic of shredded leaves for the garden. Since posting this, the weather here has been unseasonably nice and I've been shredding lots more leaves. I'll be shredding as many as I can before the weather turns cold and snowy three days from now. I'm spreading them on beds and storing them dry for mulch next year. I hope to get a pile shredded to let it compost down. I understand decayed leaves (leafmold) are akin to worm castings in their fertilizing ability. I'm totally sold on shredded leaves. Unshredded, they're a pain. Shredded, they are something very special.
Herrick, thank you. You are going to be so thrilled when you see what chopped leaves and leafmould will do for your garden - there literally is no better thing you can do to improve conditions. Make sure you do set up a chopped pile to start making leafmould - chopped leaves are great, but leafmould is spectacular. When you have a pile of chopped leaves, dampen them to wrung-out dishcloth dampness - this speeds the process. Cover the pile with a tarp. In the spring, if you have time, stir up the pile with a fork...this speeds up the process so that you will end up with leafmould by midsummer. Or if you don't have time, just wait and it will be leafmould by late summer. After seeing what leafmould does for your garden, you will be using all your leaves to make leafmould...and using chopped leaves only when you run out of leafmould.
DeleteI don't think leafmould can fertilize as well as worm casings, as it doesn't have that high-nitrogen manure element. What it does best is improve the tilth (structure) of the soil while adding organic material, both of which allow the soil microorganisms to thrive. These are what you need to feed - as they break down the organic material to make it available in a form your plants can use.
One of my best tips for great gardening is to inoculate your beds with good God-created soil with its thriving community of organisms. I go back in our untouched lush forest (which grows maples with trunks over 11' around, oaks, hemlock, beech and white pine with trunks over 9' around) and take a shovelful of soil here and there. Then I scatter this lightly over the composted manure and leafmould in the bed I am forming and turn it all under to mix well. Then after your garden gets growing well, you can just take a few shovelfuls of soil from existing beds to add to new ones, to inoculate them with a thriving community of soil microorganisms.
And if you don't have leaves, you can use straw. You won't get the high mineral amounts...but its better than nothing. Our elderly neighbor has a huge old barn full of old straw that needs to come out before it spontaneously combusts. So we are slowly emptying it for bedding for the goats and chickens and using chopped straw to mulch the garden beds and unchopped straw for the paths...and using the leafmould to build new beds. Even with 19 acres of lush forest where we harvest the leaves from the roads and paths, we never have enough leafmould. You can never have enough leafmould. You might think it would be a good idea to gather everyones leaves from around you to use...but you have to be real careful as lots of people use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, pet and livestock wormers and other noxious substances - and you don't want to add these to your garden as they will kill off your soil organisms.
PlantLady
I believe I recall you mentioning in the past that you have a bcs tractor. Did you ever look into purchasing one of their models to perform chipping or shredding functions? I know they are high-priced, but they seem to be quality implements that are able to perform a variety of functions and last for many years.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea, as I almost never use the tiller any more. A chipper would be just the thing! Thanks for the thought.
DeleteMany thanks for this excellent information.
ReplyDeletewaterproof tarp