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Making mulch from leaves


How to Turn Fallen Leaves into Springtime Mulch

Fall is here and the trees are busy dropping their leaves. What should you do with all of these leaves? Turn them into fantastic mulch for the springtime! Fallen leaves are truly the mulch of the natural world and extremely beneficial for your own landscape. Leaf litter in the forest protects soils from erosion; regulates temperature; recycles nutrients back to the trees; retains soil moisture; and provides habitat for arthropods, earthworms, and a plethora of beneficial microorganisms. Rather than ridding your yard of this beneficial product (and then later pay in the spring for wood mulch to be delivered), keep your fallen leaves and develop them into Mother Nature’s mulch.

While ground wood mulch provides all the same benefits as fallen leaves and is most often created from waste wood and brush, removing a perfectly good mulch from your home and then having a different mulch delivered may be an unnecessary effort and expense. If you have the luxury of a space to store leaves, you can reduce your carbon footprint by stockpiling them and using them as a spring mulch. Those leaves that fell from your trees contain essential plant nutrients the trees will need for their next generation of leaves.

We collect many leaves from Peirce's Woods to then be processed into mulch. Photo by Carol DeGuiseppi.

For best results turning your fallen leaves into mulch, shred the leaves prior to winter. Shredding can be as simple as chopping the leaves up with a lawnmower or using tools created specifically for this process. While shredding is not necessary, it will lead to a more consistent mulch that is darker in color. After shredding, pile the leaves into a mound and let them sit for the winter. The pile will decompose during the winter months while reducing in size by about 50 percent. As the leaves age through the winter, turn the pile with a pitchfork about once a month to create a more broken-down humus-rich product, sometimes referred to as leaf mold.   If you do not have an area to store leaves and must have yard waste picked up by a service, check with your municipality to see if it offers a leaf processing service. Some municipalities process yard waste in large batches with a grinder and offer the finished ground product for free pick-up or delivery. 

Here at Longwood, we collect leaves from most of the formal gardens and areas where turf and trees grow together. These leaves are sent to our Soils and Composting Facility, where we process those leaves into mulch using the same steps as described above, but on a much larger scale. Last year we produced more than 1,500 cubic yards of finished leaf mulch.

We process leaves into mulch at our Soils and Composting Facility. Photo by Shawn Kister.

At our facility, we also take wood waste, brush, green plant material, and food waste from Longwood property and produce wood mulch and nutrient-rich compost. When spring arrives and mulching is in full swing at Longwood, leaf mulch is in high demand by our horticulturists … thanks to its high quality and composition that mimics what Mother Nature creates on her own.

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How to make leaf mulch – with Monty Don's advice

November is the month to make leaf mulch, according to Monty Don – however, you may need to act fast – for healthy greenery in 2022.  

According to the BBC Gardener’s World presenter, this month is the best time to collect the fallen leaves to make leaf mold for your future emerging plants – but what does the process involve? Monty Don’s garden ideas have the answer. 

What is leaf mulch?

Leaf mulch – or leaf mold as you will also hear it called – is a mulch you can start creating in fall and into winter for use the following spring and summer. It is simply made with fallen leaves left to decompose separately to the rest of your compost. 

How to make leaf mulch – Monty Don's top tips

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

In his latest blog , the green guru shares all the winter garden ideas you need to know before the month concludes. This includes expert tips on making leaf mulch. Plus, we've added our own tips so you can make the very best leaf mulch for your plants.

1. Gather and store fallen leaves

‘Keep gathering fallen leaves, mowing them, keeping them damp and storing in a bay or bin bags to make leaf mould,’ Monty says. However, with the last of the leaves set to fall, it’s important to gather as many as you can in the coming days.’

2. Chop up the leaves to speed up the readiness of the mulch

As Monty explains, when gathering leaves it helps to chop them up. 

‘The easiest way to do this is to mow them, which also gathers them up as you do it,’ Monty says. ‘Of course, if the leaves are too wet, they will clog the mower up, so I try and sweep and rake them into a line when dry, run the mower over them and then give them a soak with the hose when they are in the special chicken wire-sided bay.’

However, if you don’t have the space for a dedicated leaf mulch bay, Monty’s small garden ideas work just as efficiently too. 

3. No compost heap? A black plastic bag will work

The garden expert recommends adding the mown leaves into a black bin bag before puncturing some drainage holes in the bottom. He then suggests soaking them, and letting it drain thoroughly. Then simply store it out of sight for the time being.

‘Either way, the leaves will quietly turn into leafmold over the next six months without any further attention,’ Monty adds. ‘You can also use them in spring in a half-decomposed state, as a very good mulch around emerging plants.’

4. Wet the leaves to encourage decomposition

Sharing his tips on permaculture gardening, Monty explains that ‘leaves decompose mostly by fungal action rather than bacterial which means that dry leaves can take a [awfully] long time to turn into the lovely, friable, sweet-smelling soft material that true leafmold invariably becomes.’

Therefore, he recommends gathering leaves now, when they are wet or ready to be dampened ‘with a good soaking before covering them up with the next layer.’

5. Apply the leaf mulch in spring

You can start using your leaf mulch in spring and into summer, applying a 2 to 3in layer to your soil. 

Is it okay to use leaves as mulch?

Using fallen leaves as mulch is an eco-friendly idea that actually makes gardeners' lives easier, and gardening cheaper. Make the mulch from fall through winter and start using it in spring on flower beds, in your kitchen garden and in containers. 

Is it okay to leave fallen leaves on flower beds?

Leaf mulching can of course occur naturally if you simply rake fallen leaves off your lawn and on to flower beds or into containers. Here, they will compose, returning nutrients to the soil, and providing shelter for wildlife. However, in dry weather they won't decompose well – and in windy weather they are likely to be blown back around the garden. Plus, if you don't control their thickness in spring, they may smother the emerging buds below the soil. 

And for the best tools for the job, we've rounded up current deals below. 

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Leaf mulch, humus and soil

11/21/2020

Leaf mulch is perhaps the easiest way to mulch. After all, the leaves are easy to collect and very easy to work with.

Mulching with leaves (and not only dry and fallen ones) is a good way to cover the soil under tomato and cucumber bushes. And in the fall, many gardeners like to mulch the beds with plantings before winter with leaves. Some even specially go to the forest for fallen birch leaves or pine needles.

I always have a lot of leaves from a large oak and chokeberry on my plot. As a rule, these leaves are not eaten by slugs, caterpillars and other pests, and there are no signs of bacterial or other diseases on them. These are the ones I like to use as mulch. I take just enough leaves so as not to expose the ground under the trees. And so that the leaves do not scatter from the garden, I cover them from above with a thin white lutrasil.

I rake the rest of the leaves from the plot into heaps and put them in plastic garbage bags. I add a couple of shovels of earth or compost to the bags (I try to have earthworms in them) and pour a little water, dissolving a couple of tablespoons of Baikal EM1 BIO-fertilizer in it. I tie it tightly, pierce it at the top in several places with a knitting needle and put such packages with foliage in the greenhouse. After about 8 months, I get an excellent, cheap, highly nutritious humus.

Birch, linden and maple leaves are great for mulching. Scatter them in spring and summer under fruit and berry crops 10-15 cm thick. By the end of the season, they will rot, turning into an excellent organic fertilizer. And so that the leaves do not scatter, lay a net on them or throw small sticks on them. After a month, the mesh or sticks can already be removed, as the sheet is compressed into a dense layer.

Leafy and upland soils

As long as the leaf is green, it is an important plant organ that is important for the process of photosynthesis and other plant functions. But the old withered leaf also has value. We are against burning fallen leaves. After all, they are so easy to use, like organic fertilizer, retaining nutrients.

Fallen leaves, decomposing, form the most valuable humus, which in its qualities is not inferior to manure.

In addition, the "leaf earth" obtained from the leaves is light and loose. If you use part of it in the preparation of beds or soil for seedlings, indoor plants, then the soil structure changes for the better. Nutrition from such soil is absorbed by plants much better.

Approximate application rate per 1 m² from 2 to 4 kg. "leaf earth".

Receive such land only under certain conditions. After all, old leaves decompose with the participation of completely different microorganisms than other plant residues. In the process of their decay, microscopic fungi are mainly involved.

How to get leafy soil

Gather fallen leaves at any time of the year. For ideal leafy soil, bring some leaves from the forest.
Put everything in a box or rake in piles. Arrange a cover so that they do not fly away from the wind.

In summer, shake the heaps, shovel and spill with water. Leaves should always be moist with good air access.
The leaves, decomposing, form the earth, which will contain a large amount of organic acids. They, in turn, will slow down the work of microorganisms and composting will be delayed for a long time. To prevent this from happening, add a deoxidizer. For example, ash, and even better lime - 500 g / 1 m³ of sheet mass.

The process of preparing the "leaf earth" is not fast. And to speed it up, periodically add slurry to the pile. It contains bacteria that will accelerate the ripening of the leaves. And in two years you will have land ready for use.

Seasoned gardeners speed up the work of bacteria in such ways.
For example, spilling a pile of urea, 500 gr./10 l. water.
Or potato peel solution. For this 1 kg. potatoes or their peelings pour 3 liters. water and boil until puree-like softness. Then diluted in 10 liters. cold water. For 50 kg. leaf mass is enough 2-3 liters. decoction. During the summer, you can water them and shovel the leaves three times.

Which leaves are best to take

You will get excellent soil if you use linden, birch and maple leaves. They quickly rot.

Never pick up leaves near a busy road. Otherwise, together with the leaf, “enrich” the soil with heavy metals, cadmium, lead, nickel and others.

How to get “upland soil”

“Upland soil” is also obtained from a leaf, but coniferous species, that is, from needles.

It is prepared much less often, as it does not abound in nutrients.

But it is often used as a baking powder and soil acidifier. For example, mulching planting strawberries. You just need to remember that if after that you use strawberry beds for planting other garden crops, you will have to deoxidize it. Use ash or lime for this.

Prepare "upland" in the same way as "leaf". Needles from pine, fir, juniper and spruce species are piled in piles. But for this they take the lower rotted layers of needles, raking everything from above (that is, still green and alive) to the side.

If you look at this whole process from the point of view of the cycle of leaves in nature, then the following picture emerges. Leaf mulch, while on the surface of the soil for some time, then safely turns into humus and nutrient soil. And we do not need much effort or difficult work for this. It is only required to correctly distribute the leaves under crops or in compost.

Leaves of which plants to use as mulch. Leaves from trees as fertilizer for the garden0001

In autumn, the time of leaf fall comes and, in connection with this, every autumn, dear gardeners, we are tormented by the same question: how better than use fallen leaves ?

Collect it or not? Take it out of the site or store it in a compost heap, plant it in beds, bury it away from the garden or burn it?

Fall leaf collection takes not only a lot of energy from summer residents, but also time. Among us there are many supporters of both leaf harvesting and its opponents.

Fall leaf harvesters they say that it is an excellent place for wintering pathogens of many plant diseases, as well as insect pests. In a compost heap, leaf litter cakes and rots very slowly and it will take several years to wait for the “death” of possible pests.

Opponents of harvesting very convincingly prove that the leaves cover the roots of trees from frost and, when decomposed, improve the composition of the soil and its structure, and also that the fallen leaves are not only an excellent fertilizer, but also food for earthworms, which also in the course of their life activity improve the structure of the soil.

Although, by and large, the question of what to do with the fallen leaves in their own garden is up to everyone to decide, but I would like to offer you several options for a fairly rational use of the collected leaves.

Leaf rot

Fallen leaves can be used to prepare leaf humus, which will serve as an effective tool that can improve the structure of the soil on the site.

There is almost as much nitrogen and phosphorus in leaf humus as in cow dung. In addition, such a tool is an excellent mulch, as well as an ideal acidifier, which is so necessary for acidophilic plants.

For its preparation, it is best to take the litter of deciduous trees available on your site. You can, of course, use conifers, but in this case the process of decay of waste will be slowed down.

You can get a good leafy humus in a fairly short time. To do this, in the fall, collect the fallen leaves, tamp them well into tight bags, then fill the contents with plenty of water and tie the bags, piercing them in several places for better ventilation.

Leaf humus harvested in autumn can be used already next spring when planting fruits and vegetables, and it can also be added to compost.

If you have a forest nearby, then you can successfully use the fallen leaves of such trees as: alder, birch, maple.

Alder litter is considered the most valuable. Birch and maple have slightly fewer nutrients.

But fallen aspen leaves (despite the fact that they contain a lot of nutrients) decompose very badly, as they lie rather tightly and stick together. They often have to be loosened and, moreover, additionally sprinkled with lime or chalk, due to their acidic reaction.

Oak litter is also very dense and hard, containing a lot of tannins, which do not allow it to rot quickly and well.

Therefore, aspen and oak litter is best used in small quantities and only mixed with the foliage of other tree species.

Mulching

Fallen leaves can be used as a natural mulch.

To do this, in the autumn you just need to spread the wet leaves over the empty areas of the soil, and with the advent of spring, either rake them, or simply dig them along with the soil.

In this case, leaf litter will protect the soil from weathering, leaching of useful substances from it, and also suppress the growth of weeds.

We warm perennials

Dry fallen leaves will serve as a good warming and heat-insulating material with which you can cover hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, roses and other heat-loving shrubs for the winter.

We attract hedgehogs

With the help of fallen leaves, you can attract hedgehogs to your plot, which are happy to eat pest larvae.

To do this, simply do not remove leaves along fences and around trees located in remote areas of your garden, so that these animals would like to settle in them.

Add to compost

Shredded fallen leaves can be added to the compost heap, especially if you fill it with a lot of green waste and plant residues in the fall.

In this case, they will play the role of coarse "brown" material and balance the share of the latter.

For high beds

If you have high beds, containers or boxes for growing vegetables and berries in your garden, then the fallen leaves can be used as bulk material, which can improve the quality and structure of the soil.

For this purpose, immediately after emptying the beds, either simply fill the boxes with some pre-shredded leaf litter, or mix the collected litter with green residues, compost and other materials used to fill high beds.

Fill them with chopped fallen leaves.

Making decorative compositions

Agree, fallen leaves look great against the background of dirt paths.

Therefore, if you have a desire to make your garden beautiful and unpretentious, just do not remove the litter.

Well, if you are also a creative person, then you can make an excellent decorative composition from the collected leaves.

In general, dear gardeners, when deciding what to do with fallen leaves, I advise you to proceed from considerations of your own convenience.


See you soon, dear friends!

The soil around the plants should be mulched not only in spring and summer, but also in autumn, so that the crops can safely overwinter.

Mulch laid in autumn rots by spring and contributes to better warming of the soil, as well as rapid germination of crops.

But this is only one of the benefits of autumn mulching. What else is mulch good for?

  1. The covering material retains moisture well, so plants planted in autumn do not need to be watered.
  2. When rotting, the mulch forms an additional layer of humus that nourishes the plants.
  3. Mulched soil is less affected by frost in winter and overheating in spring.
  4. Covered ground does not crust over after watering or rain.
  5. Mulch protects plants from extreme temperature changes.
  6. In the spring, mulched soil produces fewer weeds.

Plant beds and tree trunks should be covered with mulch in late autumn, when the topsoil has already begun to freeze. This is necessary so that rodents do not settle in the mulch, looking for a warm place for wintering.

It is important to understand that the desired effect of mulch can only be achieved if the covering material is not spared. The thickness of the mulch layer should reach 5-10 cm, otherwise the mulching procedure is in vain.

1. Mulching with bark of coniferous trees

Benefits

This is one of the most durable mulching materials available. Mulch from the bark of coniferous trees is good for its decorative effect, as well as the ability to stimulate plant growth. Tree bark protects the earth from sudden changes in temperature. In addition, the soil after irrigation does not cake, and an earthen crust does not form on it.

Disadvantages

Perhaps the main disadvantage in using this mulching material is the laboriousness of its preparation. It is recommended to compost the bark of coniferous trees before use during the year. Also, this material is not recommended for mulching tomatoes.

What can be mulched with bark:

2. Compost mulching

Benefits

Compost is one of the best materials for soil mulching. It is completely safe for plants, reduces the likelihood of infection with diseases, and is also an excellent fertilizer.

Disadvantages

As with the bark of coniferous trees, the compost must be prepared in advance. Also, a bed of compost can grow more weeds than soil covered with other mulching material.

What can be mulched compost :

What is the difference between compost and manure? Compost is an organic mass obtained as a result of the decomposition of plant residues, and humus is rotted (or rather, rotted) manure.

3. Peat mulching

Benefits

Peat is most often used as mulch in autumn. Peat mulching before winter is especially indicated on heavy soil prone to crusting. In the spring, this covering material contributes to the early heating of the soil, retains moisture and improves the structure of the soil.

Disadvantages

It is not recommended to mulch the soil with fresh peat, as it contains a high concentration of toxic substances that adversely affect plants. Only certain types of peat can be used for mulching: transitional and lowland.

What can be mulched with peat :

4. Mulching with humus

Benefits

Mulching the soil with humus is one of the most effective ways to increase its fertility. This mulch is rich in useful substances necessary for good plant growth. In particular, humus saturates the soil with nitrogen, which is very necessary for garden and garden crops in spring.

Disadvantages

Mulch mulch can encourage weed growth.

What can be mulch with humus :

5. Sawdust mulching

Benefits

Sawdust is an excellent fertilizer for any type of soil (especially in combination with compost). They protect the ground from freezing and can enrich even the poorest soil with nutrients.

Disadvantages

Decaying sawdust can "pull" nitrogen out of the soil and reduce its fertility. Since the sawdust tightly covers the ground from the sun's rays, in the spring all kinds of bacteria begin to develop in the upper soil layer.

What can be mulch with sawdust :

Use only fresh sawdust whenever possible. Those that have been stored for a long time, dumped in a heap, can stick together. Dry them thoroughly before use.

6. Mulching with wood shavings

Benefits

Shavings can be used where the soil is rarely tilled. Wood shavings keep well if kept in a dry place. Like sawdust, shavings repel slugs.

Disadvantages

Unlike sawdust, shavings rot much longer (about 1 year), so they are more often used to cover soil that is hardly dug up (for example, on paths).

What can be mulch with shavings :

7. Straw mulching

Benefits

Straw enriches the soil with nutrients and increases its fertility. And because this mulching material decomposes slowly, it provides mulched crops with long-term protection and keeps the soil warm.

Disadvantages

Straw mulch can contain weed seeds and is also a favorite winter shelter for rodents.

What can be mulch with straw :

8. Needle mulching

Benefits

Needle is an available material that can be collected in the forest. Over time, mixing with the soil, such a mulch will make it looser and more permeable. For mulching plantings on the site, it is best to use pine or spruce litter - they will help prevent the occurrence of gray rot in plants. A dense layer of spruce needles reliably protects the soil from freezing and drying out.

Disadvantages

Fallen needles emit volatile substances that can adversely affect horticultural crops. Also, needles increase the acidity of the soil, which is very harmful for many plants.

What can be mulch with needles :

9. Mulching with dry fallen leaves

Benefits

Dry leaf mulch is a natural covering inspired by nature itself. The leaves quickly decompose and enrich the soil with nutrients. As a result, crops planted in autumn start growing faster in spring.

Disadvantages

Do not mulch vegetables with leaf litter. In a mild and damp winter, the foliage may begin to rot, which will provoke the reproduction of fungi in the soil.

What can mulch with dead leaves :

10. Pine nut shell mulching

Benefits

Pine nut shell mulch is not only natural, but also very durable. It perfectly retains moisture in the soil, protects plantings from weeds and looks quite decorative. In addition, a good shell layer stimulates the formation of beneficial microflora in the soil. In winter, the pine nut shell prevents the soil from freezing. In addition, such mulching material is an excellent antiseptic.

Disadvantages

High price. To mulch even a small area of ​​soil, you will have to spend a lot of money. Also, nutshells can attract rodents, which can significantly damage plants in the ground.

What can be mulch with pine nut shells :

As you can see, there are quite a lot of mulch options, so every gardener and gardener will be able to mulch plantings before a harsh winter. You just need to choose the type of mulch that suits you best.

Soil mulching: mulching materials

One of the most useful agricultural techniques used by gardeners in different climatic zones is mulching. This procedure is a cover of the soil surface with organic or artificial material, while the ridges are covered completely or only in the aisles.
Man learned mulching from nature itself. In meadows, in forests under trees and shrubs, the soil is never bare - a layer of dry grass, fallen leaves and needles protects the earth from drying out and protects plants from cold weather and pests.
Under a layer of mulch, the soil retains its structure, soil crust does not form. In addition, the mulch protects the soil around the plant from being washed away by water during irrigation, retains moisture, and does not allow weeds to develop.

By mulching the beds, you can significantly reduce the amount of watering and virtually eliminate loosening.
How to mulch the soil on your site? What mulching materials to use? There are plenty of options, as usual.

Mulching with inorganic covering materials

Roofing felt, roofing material, lutrasil, black and colored film are widely used for soil mulching in suburban areas.
They are spread on the beds, cutting holes into which the plants are then planted. It is better to make holes slotted (cutting the film along or across), and not round or square. So the soil will be better protected from moisture evaporation, and rainwater will penetrate well into the soil.
Mulch beds with zucchini and cucumbers with black synthetic film to get rid of weeds and reduce the frequency of watering. On strawberry beds mulched with a film, the berries will always remain clean.
Tomatoes grow best in red film mulch, while cabbage prefers white film. A transparent film for mulching is not suitable, it does not prevent the growth of weed plants, but, on the contrary, causes their rapid growth.
Film used as mulch must meet the following requirements:
do not transmit light;
be thin and elastic, close to the soil surface;
be strong so that weeds cannot break through it.
Film mulch increases the ground temperature by 1.5-2°C, which is very important in the unstable climate of the middle zone with short summers; on the other hand, the film reduces the evaporation of moisture, thereby lowering the temperature on the soil surface on hot days. That is, the film saves planting from cold, and from heat, and from drought.
Light-tight black film mulching is widely used for chemical-free weed control. Under the black film, perennial hard-to-remove rhizomatous weeds die off - wheatgrass, sow thistle, loach.
Black film mulch does not form a soil crust, which does not allow oxygen to reach the seedlings in the right amount, and as a result, they suffocate, and gardeners get rare unfriendly seedlings. Film mulching prevents soil compaction by precipitation. Even after 5 years of growing strawberries under a film, the earth will remain loose.
In addition, film mulch helps to increase soil fertility: due to the decomposition of weeds, nitrogen accumulates in the upper layer of the earth, soil microorganisms reliably protected by film cover become more active, begin to feed intensively, and the humus content in the soil increases.
Film-mulched soil retains heat better in winter, film-covered beds do not freeze as much as open ones. This advantage of film mulch is especially important when growing dwarf apple trees, whose frost resistance is not as great as that of ordinary ones, and strawberries, whose roots are at a shallow depth.
Mulching films suppress the development of strawberry gray rot, and also help to reduce the number of nematodes.
However, film mulch has a significant disadvantage - unlike organic mulch, it does not decompose and does not feed the soil. For this reason, many gardeners prefer to first mulch the beds with humus, and then lay the film, non-woven fabric, etc.

Using organic mulch

No matter how many advantages film and other synthetic materials have, modern gardeners prefer mulch made from natural materials.
The cover of organic matter in the beds not only prevents the growth of weeds, protects the soil from overheating and freezing and retains moisture in the ground, as the mulch decomposes, a fertile layer is created in the ground that nourishes soil microorganisms and plants.
To get the most out of mulching with natural materials, you need to know when and what kind of mulch to use.

Mulching with fresh cut grass

Grass is rich in nitrogen and other useful substances necessary for the full development of plants.

As mulch, you can use grass residues after mowing the lawn, weeds and slightly dried weeds, torn off stepchildren of tomatoes. By the way, tomato leaf mulch is ideal for cabbage beds, it repels cabbage whites.
Don't rush to use freshly cut grass as mulch, let it dry out in the sun for a day or two. Raw grass will rot too quickly.
In the northern regions, grass mulch is applied when the soil is already warm enough, and the plants have sprouted and grown stronger. In the southern regions, grass mulching is best done even before planting, then it can enrich the soil with nutrients.

Mulching soil with compost

Compost is an almost ideal, versatile material for mulching. It is suitable for all vegetable crops and is completely safe. Compost mulch reduces the likelihood of plant disease and provides excellent nutrition.
So do not take out organic garbage, kitchen waste, weeds, leaves, etc., put it all in the compost heap along with sawdust, wood shavings and paper. Within a year, you will have excellent organic material for mulching your garden.

Straw mulching

Straw is ideal for mulching mail under nightshade tomatoes and potatoes.

It acts as a barrier between tomato fruit and pathogens in the soil, protecting plants from early rot, anthracnose and leaf spot. And on potato beds mulched with straw, the main pest of potatoes, the Colorado potato beetle, is much less frequently observed.
In addition, straw mulch is good for crops such as basil, garlic, strawberries and blackberries.

Mulching with newsprint

Black and white and colored newspapers (shredded or whole) can safely cover beds - newsprint makes an excellent mulch and a good weed control agent.

Lay four layers of newspapers on the bed to be mulched and sprinkle hay, grass, straw or earth on top.
Many summer residents are afraid to use newspapers because of the printing ink that gets into the soil with them, however, according to American scientists, not a single chemical substance from modern newspaper ink poses a threat to the garden or vegetable garden.

Mulch made from kraft wrapping paper and cardboard proved to be equally effective in controlling weeds. These materials can also replace film mulch when the soil needs to be warmed up. If a few days before planting seedlings in the ground, close the bed with kraft paper, the soil in it warms up by 3 ° C.
Paper mulching is especially effective in planting raspberries and legumes - it helps to increase their yield.

Fall leaf mulching

Fallen leaves are the ideal mulch for cabbage and bean beds. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants can also be mulched with leaf litter, but only after the soil has warmed up well.
A very good leaf mulch in flower beds, it protects flowers from freezing and also prevents bulbous plants from germinating during early spring thaws.

Bark mulching

Bark is one of the most durable mulching materials.

It repels water, so it takes a long time to rot. Most often, such a long-term mulch is used around fruit trees and shrubs.
The bark of coniferous trees should not be used for mulching tomatoes - the volatile substances released by it can harm the bushes.
On the other hand, bark mulch has proven itself in berry fields and flower beds. Due to its durability, it is often used as a decorative material in landscape design.

Mulching with sawdust or wood chips

Sawdust or sawdust is best used where the soil is rarely tilled and hardly dug up (furrows, paths in the garden), because the chips take more than a year to completely rot.
Sawdust can be used to cover the ground in raspberries, or before winter, sprinkle them on beds with winter crops (for example, garlic and tulips).
Never use packed sawdust as mulching material. If the sawdust lay piled up in a heap for a long time, most likely oxygen stopped flowing into the deep layer, and they “soured”. Such sawdust must first be scattered in a thin layer and dried.

Needle mulching

Needle has proven itself as a mulch for eggplant and strawberries.

Many gardeners do not use pine needles because the needles seem to acidify the soil.
However, experience shows that the pH of the soil, covered two years in a row with a 7 cm layer of conifer needles, remains at the same level as before mulching.
In addition to the materials listed above, humus, reeds, peat chips, peat, sunflower or pumpkin seed cake can serve as mulch. Often, a combined mulch of two or three materials is used, for example, cake with freshly cut grass or cardboard with straw. A mulch made from sawdust mixed with fresh grass gives an excellent result.
How and when to mulch, read the following article "Country Tips".
We wish you success and great harvests!

As I already wrote, the leaves are a good insulator, so a layer of 5-7 cm in the near-stem circle of a fruit tree will protect the soil from severe freezing. The larger the sheet, the looser the pillow will be. The smaller, the more likely that the leaves are compressed into a dense cake and this is not very good.

These points must be taken into account. And loosening the leaf canopy at the onset of sub-zero temperatures not only destroys a large number of pests, larvae and pupae that hibernate in the heat. Such loosening destroys packed foliage, giving air access to the root system, retaining the first snow, which also insulates the soil.

In the spring, I really want to remove such leaf mulch as soon as possible. First of all, because we are frightened by horror stories, that under it all sorts of pests are simply teeming, and spores of diseases are already starting to explode on the leaves. Moreover, the knowledge that under the foliage that has packed over the winter the earth freezes more slowly pushes us to urgent cleaning.

I'll start with the fact that pests and diseases can be reckoned with without removing the foliage. To do this, it is enough to pour the leaves with a solution of urea (300 g per 10 liters of warm water). But it is not worth rushing to remove the leaves precisely because they do not allow the soil to thaw quickly, which means that the tree will wake up more slowly and bloom a little later than unmulched relatives. And in conditions of the threat of return frosts, this is very good. Let me take last spring as an example. In my garden, a plum and two cherry plums were well mulched before winter and kept under the foliage until the soil in the garden completely thawed, and the same two plums in the area in front of the house turned out to be “bare”. As a result, the "street" ones bloomed 5 days earlier and fell under frost - there were 0 fruits. On the garden ones, flowering was only partially affected by frosts and there were enough fruits to eat for pleasure.

And so.

Leaves as mulch

Leaves of trees and shrubs decompose for quite a long time and become complete food for plants only after they are processed by worms.

Only leaves with no signs of diseases or pests are suitable for mulching, so in the garden I prefer to use decorative or forest leaves with large leaf blades as mulch. Oak and chestnut leaves serve longer as mulch. They actively suppress the germination of seeds, therefore they are suitable only for large perennials and in the near-trunk circles of trees and shrubs.

In central Russia, oaks often suffer from powdery mildew, but this is not an obstacle to the use of their foliage, because the race of these pathogens is not dangerous for other plants.

For mulching large perennials and shrubs, it is better to take dry leaves, mostly large ones. They do not cake, protect the soil from hypothermia, and in summer from overheating, preserve the structure and moisture of the soil, and prevent the growth of weeds. The optimal layer of mulch is 5-10 cm. Mulching with leaves is especially important for perennials suffering from bulging roots, as well as crops in which the root system is superficial.

Part of the foliage is used for mulching between the rows of strawberries, after the foliage gets wet in the rain, I sprinkle it with a little ash and a small layer of garden soil.

Remember that the mulch should not fit snugly against the root collar, otherwise, under adverse conditions, this most vulnerable spot in the plant may become soaked and rotted. Do not mulch small herbaceous perennials with foliage.

The ideal leaf mulch is shredded.

Lawn owners carefully scrape fallen leaves from the grass in autumn. They are partly right - leaf litter can cause the grass cover to rot. I do otherwise. In fact - I mulch the lawn with leaf litter. But ... I do it competently. As soon as a lot of leaves appear on the lawn (say, they hide the grass by 50%), in dry weather, take the lawn mower out. I remove the grass catcher from it, adjust it to the highest cut and start mowing. The crushed foliage lays down on the lawn in a thin, even layer, and after rain settles to the roots, where over time it turns into an excellent organic fertilizer. In fact, I remove the leaves from the lawn only at the very end of autumn. When it is simply impossible to injure grass that has grown by 8 cm with a lawn mower.

Many have noticed that I often write: to collect leaves in bags. Yes, for me this is the most convenient way to further use the fallen leaves. In dry weather, the collected leaves in bags lie until the moment when they need to be used. For example, fall asleep perennials cut and prepared for winter as mulch, insulate near-stem circles of shrubs or a garden bed prepared for spring. Yes, and it is more convenient to pour the leaves from the bags into the compost heap in layers. Here you certainly won’t forget to sprinkle them with garden soil: poured out of the bag, leveled it over the entire surface of the compost bin, sprinkled it with earth, took up the second bag. Most often I use large plastic black garbage bags. I carry the filled ones closer to the places of future use of foliage, I definitely cover it so that water does not get inside.

To be continued…

Among the abundance of modern fertilizers, gardeners prefer the unchanging classics - natural organics, the positive effect of which has been tested by more than one generation of predecessors. Fallen leaves occupies a special place among such dressings. This natural organic matter does not require capital investments, and in terms of impact it is equal to bird droppings and mullein.

Leaves as fertilizer

Fallen leaves are rightfully considered a storehouse of fiber and a free source of a fairly rare trace element - silicon.

Decaying, deciduous raw materials turn into the most valuable organic fertilizer, for which gardeners appreciate it. Earthworms are also very fond of settling in decaying foliage. Gardeners use fallen leaves specifically for breeding worms and other useful living creatures on their plots.

Leaf-based humus is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus. According to the quantitative composition of these macroelements, it is equivalent to cow dung. In addition, leaf humus remarkably mulches the soil, and is also a natural acidifier - an indispensable component of the normal growth and development of acidophilic plants.

If there are a lot of trees on the site, then leaf litter can be successfully used to feed horticultural crops. So, alder is considered the most valuable in terms of the content of nutrients, birch and maple are slightly inferior to it.

Can it be used?

Leaf litter contains not only the main macronutrients (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus), but also essential microelements: iron and magnesium, silicon, calcium and sulfur.

All these components are extremely important not only for horticultural crops, but also for the soil. Leaf litter perfectly loosens the soil, improves air and water permeability. In addition, earthworms like to huddle in it - useful and hardworking inhabitants of household plots.

Positive properties:

Negative properties:

How to prepare fertilizer?

There are many ways to prepare high-quality organic matter from fallen leaves, but most often gardeners make humus, compost, mulch and ashes from it.

Humus

To prepare high-quality leaf humus, raw materials are collected, put into a container (you can use an old barrel) and compacted. You don't need to close it. In the absence of a suitable container, the foliage is folded into thick bags, not forgetting to make small holes in several places. Garden stores sell special bags for creating humus. Containers (or bags) with foliage are placed in the most humid corner of the site. The humus will be ready for use in about a year or two. After 2-3 years, it will turn into real humus.

Compost

Its manufacture involves following certain rules. It is worth considering the rate of decay of foliage of different types of trees. For example, oak leaves decompose more slowly than birch and linden leaves.

To speed up the overdrying of the foliage, it should be regularly mixed, increasing the access of air. Or prepare a nitrogen-containing solution for irrigation, accelerating the decay process.

If the leaves were not removed during the winter, this is done in the spring. Organic garbage should not be burned or thrown away. It is sent to the compost heap. This raw material will decompose faster, since it has already been under the snow and mixed in the ground. In addition, microorganisms have already settled there, accelerating overheating.

Compost is prepared in a heap or pit. After its complete overheating, the most valuable organic fertilizer is applied under berries, flowers, fruit trees.

Ash

If there is any doubt about the quality of the raw material, it is wiser to dry it and burn it. Fire will destroy all diseases, as well as pests at various stages of development. When the leaves burn, hydrocarbon, oxygen and nitrogen evaporate, leaving: 25% calcium, 15% potassium, 4% phosphorus, a small amount of magnesium and iron, zinc and sulfur, manganese and boron, copper and strontium.

Significant calcium content turns ash into the most valuable deoxidizer, which is necessary for many horticultural and horticultural crops. Potassium in the ash is in a form that is easy for plants to assimilate. This mineral fertilizer is applied before digging the garden (up to 300 g per sq. M.), And also poured into the holes during planting and when forming compost heaps.

Mulch

Fallen leaves are also used as natural mulch. To do this, in the autumn, the wet biomaterial is laid out on the ground. It prevents the growth of weeds, protects the soil from freezing, weathering, evaporation of nutrients.

In addition, mulch blocks the sun's rays. This is especially true for aluminas, which are subject to inevitable crusting. In the spring, the foliage is raked and placed in a compost heap or buried in the ground when digging.

For the first few years, mulched beds will need a nitrogen fertilizer. Perfect for manure or slurry. But it is better to refuse to apply mineral fertilizers, since they will have a detrimental effect on the activity of earthworms.

Note. With the advent of natural humus, there is no need for any other fertilizers.

Fallen leaves serve as a high-quality insulation that will help roses, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and other berry plants to successfully overwinter. In the mulch, useful microorganisms, earthworms, which improve the structure of the soil, accelerate the process of decomposition of organic matter, winter well.

Large chestnut or maple leaves are best suited for winter shelter. Smaller biomaterial is strongly caking and blocks the access of oxygen, which is undesirable for plants.

Foliage features

Walnut leaves are considered the most useful. It is added to compost or simply burned. Walnut ash not only feeds garden crops, but also fights the increased acidity of the soil.

Birch leaves, due to their small size, overripe very quickly. Based on them, it is possible to obtain fast and high-quality organic matter. But oak trees need at least a year to decompose.

It is noted that oak litter is famous for its high content of acids and tannins, the excess of which can harm garden crops. Due to this specific composition, oak foliage overheats for a long time.

Aspen leaves after decomposition restore the nitrogen content in the soil. In addition, the soil is enriched with magnesium, calcium and potassium. However, they also overheat for a very long time and tend to stick together, blocking the access of oxygen.

Oak and aspen leaves are added in small quantities to the general compost. Some gardeners give them a separate place for a long overheating.

Alder leaves are considered to be the most valuable in terms of nutrients, slightly inferior to maple and birch leaves.

Coniferous needles are aged for at least 3 years. However, such organic matter is indispensable for planting acidophilic crops - connoisseurs of acidic soil. Among them are rhododendrons, camellias, hydrangeas, azaleas, representatives of the heather family.

When using litter, the following is taken into account: oak, chestnut and birch leaves alkalize the soil, while aspen and linden, on the contrary, acidify.

Conclusion

Fallen leaves are an excellent fertilizer for garden crops.

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