How To Use Leaves In The Garden. The Dangers Of Using Leaves Incorrectly. | Gardening In Canada
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- Old tree leaves are a staple of fall but it seems wasteful to simply throw them into the garbage. However, applying these to your garden the wrong way can be equally as damaging to your soil nutrients. This article looks at how to use old tree leaves in your garden properly.
Why Are Leaves Valuable For The Garden?
Leaves provide two things to garden soil. The first being different forms of nutrients and the second is a diverse group of microbes. Most forms of organic material are decomposed using bacteria. With leaves, the main decomposer is actually fungi. This means when decomposed leaves are added to a garden we increase the biodiversity of the soil.
Join our monthly newsletter!
newsletter.gardeningincanada.net
Website/Blog & FREE printables: gardeningincan...
------
👩🔬 Grab your at home Garden Soil Testing Workbook! etsy.me/3dW5HLg
-----
👩🔬Patreon: / gardeningincanada
-----
Amazon Affiliate:
pH Meter: geni.us/ZXQx0S
Fungus Gnat, Thrip control: geni.us/SBDgp
Spider Mite Control: geni.us/tG5FlN
T5 Light I Use: geni.us/BXR7
LED light I Use: geni.us/Av6yYh
Grab your mushroom kit here: geni.us/E7tij5d
Magidome Greenhouse Connectors:
magidome.com/?...
Discount code: GardeningInCanada
HUMIC ACID: www.rogitex.co... Discount Code: GardeningInCanada15
-------
🇨🇦 Canadian Seed Retailer - www.zappaseeds...
------
🪴 Greenhouse Affiliate Link: www.magidome.c...
Coupon code: GardeningInCanada
------
👚CHECK OUT MERCH!
Stickers, Mugs, Hoodies, Shirts, Face Masks!
Gardening In Canada
-----
MARS HYDRO LIGHTING 👽
US：ebay.to/2GaFQ5G
UK: ebay.to/3kOrzud
AU：ebay.to/35RvVLa
EU: ebay.to/2Gjeryl
CA: ebay.to/3ejfVoJ
-----
PODCAST : anchor.fm/gard...
🌿 PLANT HACKS TESTED SERIES: • Garden Hacks - Debunke...
🤠 SOIL SCIENCE FOR GARDENERS: • Soil Science For Garde...
🇨🇦 CANADIAN BACKYARD VEGETABLE GARDEN PLAYLIST: • Canadian Backyard Vege...
🤕 SICK PLANT SOLUTIONS PLAYLIST: • Playlist
😏 CONNECT TO THE LAND PODCAST: connectedtothe...
THUMBNAIL photos are compliments of Unsplash.com
INSTAGRAM / gardeningincanada
FACEBOOK: / gardenincanada
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you are wanting to know more on gardening in Canada & gardening in Colder Climates in general. My methods apply to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 1 - Zone 6. As a soil scientist I always try to incorporate science into my videos. Soil science can be over complicated so allow me to guide you.
Leave a comment and let me know where your are gardening. And let me know what videos you would like to see in the future!
Ashley is an agronomist who has had a passion for plants since she was a small child. In the long summers as a child, she would garden alongside her grandmother and it was then that she realized her love for greenery. With years of great studying, Ashley had begun her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan.
At first, her second love, animals, was the career path she chose but while doing her undergrad she realized that her education would take her elsewhere. And with that, four years later she graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a bachelor’s degree in science and a major in Soil Science.
Some of Ashley’s interests are RUclips, in which she posts informative videos about plants and gardening. The focus of Ashley’s RUclips channel is to bring science to gardening in a way that is informative but also helpful to others learning to garden. She also talks about the importance of having your own garden and the joys of gardening indoors. Ashley continues to study plants in her free time and hopes to expand her RUclips channel as well as her reach to up and coming gardeners.
#gardeningincanada #canadiangardener #soilscience
Here is a follow up video to this idea: Using LEAVES To Make Potting Soil!?
ruclips.net/video/_vOcJ-5jMLE/видео.html
This article will help you understand how too use leaves with your houseplants as well. gardeningincanada.net/leaves-for-houseplants/
Yep thanks much
Great video... :0
Too?
@@omeshsingh8091 The leaves that have dried out have also had their nitrogen and stuff pulled back into the trees before they fell. If they're still green then they have nitrogen also.
@@yx5881 The process of the bacteria and the fungus breaking down the leaves, mostly carbon, per many videos, people at nurseries, it pulls in nitrogen from around the earth around the compost if it doesn't have enough nitrogen for the decomposition. Green things have nitrogen in them.
Iowa Zone 5a. I take my neighbors' bagged leaves, dump them in a line on my lawn, run the lawn mower thru them in mulch mode, run the lawn mower through them again in bag mode, and dump the pulverized leaves on top of the garden. By June, the pulverized leaves have turned to leaf mold. This easy process accelerates the conversion of leaves to leaf mold, increases the amount of leaves I can add to the garden, eliminates loose leaves blowing around the garden and covering up spring plantings, fertilizes the lawn where I mulch with the lawn mower, provides the garden bed with a protective cover over the winter, and saves my neighbors money that they would have to pay the city to haul off their leaves. Everybody wins. My process probably doesn't jive with your explanation of what we should be doing, but I'm getting good yields from my vegetable garden. I do use grass clippings when available, and compost, but the primary addition is the fall harvest of shredded leaves.
How has RUclips hidden this channel from me for this long? I binge on gardening and soil videos every day, and I live in Canada. I subscribed 20 seconds in and created a list of a ton of your videos to watch over the coming days and weeks.
Great to have Canadian experience with lower zones 🇨🇦
I have used leaf mulch for years now on my garden! Just run the lawn mower over them with the bag on, then toss them on the garden, usually at the end of the year when I can collect them from the neighbours. Putting them on your garden plots in the fall keeps the plots covered - I don't leave my plots naked, they are always dressed with mulch. It does great to keep the weeds down too!
We still have green grass here in Louisiana, Dec. 23, so today I ran my electric mower with a bag over brown oak and sweetgum leaves and green grass and made piles and long deep rows with it in my garden. I added some organic potting soil over it along with a small amount of urine and sprayed it with the hose a few times. I mixed leaves, green grass and urine to a large pile of pine straw too. Here in Louisiana these things break down very rapidly.
Here in NE France I use leaves 2 ways: directly on the soil for winter coverage (I never leave the soil bare), and composted in just the conditions you describe. I get fine crumbly leaf mould after one year. I'm lucky to have a good supply of leaves! Over a period of over 40 years I've changed a difficult chalk-loaded soil into a fertile tilth. 1/4 ton of squashes this year! And the blackbirds just love beaking around in those leaves.
This is the most detailed, scientific, yet simple explanations of leaf mold I’ve encountered. You have a knack for these types of topics!
Haha well thank you!
I think I missed something. Are you introducing mold into your leaf bags or does it appear naturally? If you are adding, what exactly are you adding?
🎉❤😊
@@frederickgleaton1410 The "starter" is present naturally on the leaves.
We live in Michigan on the edge of USDA Zones 4 & 5. A friend in town brings us her oak leaves. Husband "mows" them to shreds & puts them on the gardens - some composted already & some as mulch for things like strawberries & asparagus. depending on how long they've been here. We all benefit. She disposes of leaves at no cost. Husb gets lots of exercise. I get to play in the "dirt" each summer. Thanks for the info.
Hi Ashley!
I'm Nicolás, I study Agroecology at Universidad de Rio Negro in the Argentinian Patagonia. These are topics that I really love to study and practice! Thanks a lot for making these highly dense and informative, yet incredibly simple to assimilate videos! In fact, since our climates are very similar, we at the far south can take a lot of useful stuff out of them. There is a huge lack of good, accessible scientifically correct information and education about soil science around here, specially in relation to cold weather agriculture. Fortunately, I'm trying to establish myself as a professional English to Spanish translator, so maybe I could help a little with that ;)
I would like to translate this particular video to Spanish (and maybe some others too), so I can share it with my university colleagues and friends from our gardening project... For free, obviously. I'll send you the file when it's finished, so you can upload it. Would that be OK?
Thank you again. Have a happy spring! 🌺🌻🌼🌷🌱
WOOWW. Nice offer! I hope this comment boosts yours up so she can see it. Your english from what i could see is impeccable. Good luck!
What a great way to share this amazing information to Spanish speaking gardeners !!!
Blessings to you !!!
I hope you ended up doing this! ❤
I collected leaf mole in the 40’s with my mom and have been making my own the last forty years. I thank you for the explanation why this works so well. You did an excellent job. I will be back.
I totally agree with you. For the past five plus years, I have driven my garden tractor backwards to shred the leaves, then blow them into piles. I learned this from a friend, who works at a famous cemetery, where the "old timers" taught him how to grow grass on a fresh grave within seven days with leaf mulch and burlap. I wish that you had asserted your expert and correct premise at the onset, then explain the damaged that whole leaves will create. You are 100% correct. Thank you for your expert explanation. I appreciate and respect you.
I took some partially broken down leaves out of the roof eaves last November, left them in a corner of the backyard over winter, and used them mixed with peat and sand when I potted my peppers and eggplants in late May and they did great for me this year.
thats so interesting how that can make a difference
Once a week I get the leaves for 4-5 weeks. Shred with the garden tractor and use the yard sweeper. Pack down by walking on them in 3, 3 sided pallet bins. There is always some grass clippings mixed in. Takes about 1 1/2 years for it to be totally composted with no turning it. The total volume of compost ends out being about 1/2 of 1 bin or about 1/6 of what I started with. Neat video.
Thats a long time! but lots of people will find that comment helpful
"There is always some grass clippings mixed in."
EXACTLY! That is the key point,, whether piling, binning, or bagging. AND then flipping or mixing the pile even once a year, will certainly speed things up. Too many people BLOW their (oak & Nut) leaves into piles, & 5, even 10 years later wonder why the leaves are not totally broke down into humus. I chop them up good with the lawn mower & make sure that there is enough grass & water mixed in,,, then I bag 'em. Usually, one or even two years later, the mixture is very broken down, the unwanted grass & weed seeds are fermented & the mixture is ready to deep till into the garden,,, WITH triple 10 & LIME.
I read somewhere, where it takes 100 years to build 1" of top-soil in a forest, & only 10 years if the acreage is grass & legumes,,,, & is mowed down every fall!
ASHLY,,,, I'd like you to make a vid showing the difference/ acids/ tannins in certain leaves. Say Maple vrs NUT & OAK leaves. Like a rolling compost bin of each, with so many pounds of greens add to each. THAT would be scientific!!
Thanks for the video. I double shred leaves, put them in large black trash bags and give them a good soaking. I let them sit in the sun for a week with a couple cups of spent coffee grounds in the middle of the bag. After 7-10 days, they are moved to the shade until the Spring. Living in northern IL, I find this helps breakdown the leaves for use the next season.
I love that idea!
Montreal, Canada zone 5a . We used to make leaf mold our cycle was about 8 months. Now I mow like before and use as mulch before winter. In spring I check to make sure it’s nice and fluffy lift any large leaves leftover from fall. By fall clean up I have no more leaves on beds.
That said I have noticed a couple beds have needed nitrogen. But on the whole way less work and great results. It’s easy to add a little nitrogen when needed.
I've come to the conclusion that you cannot create a mediocre video. Thank you so much for your efforts!
HAHA oh my goodness thats a huge compliment
@@GardeningInCanadau R gardening 🪙 Gold
The city sweeps the streets in the fall and brings me truck loads. I use them the second spring. I lay whole potatoes on the beds and deep mulch with the leaf mold. I rotate through the 32 beds season by season.
Thanks for sharing this information. I am learning more about gardening each day.
I live in Jamestown NY, zone 5 and collect shredded leaves and top my garden in fall, let it sit on top all winter and till it under in spring. It helps to keep the soil lighter for growing root vegetables, and adds nutrients. I also fertilize when tilling.
I ran lots of leaves into my 8 hp mulcher chipper and grass clipping and garden foliage waste and had about 3 inches of these in a mulch about 3 inches on my peppers bed last season and this spring after planting seedlings that had worm casting and micorizomes ( believe best seedlings ever).planted double row of peppers and 27 bell peppers top them with brown paper to help against then top with 2.5 inches compose for protection from weeds produced bells starting July 1 all season and after counting pass 250 still producing believe I got 300.but certainly very near.I never did as well Mid Ohio zone 6a Had a large bag for my local firefighters.
Thanks always listening to you very hard.
Hello and good day. This is my third year of collecting and composting leaves. It takes about that long to get results. I mean they serve so many uses as we use them. I can now see a difference in my soil and plant health.
Sandy compacted soil benefits from organic matter such as leafs cut up or whole and worked into the soil. Nitrogen levels in the soil can easily be improved using a variety of nitrogen additives but the composition using leafs significantly increase the viability of Sandy Loam soils but not Clay loam.
This is very encouraging, thank you! I just spent an hour shredding leaves and then just used them for mulch around the side of house instead of paying to get ripped off on pinestraw... but now I will look more into using them to cover the raised garden beds.
Just discovered your channel two months ago...I do gardening as full-time job since 2019, with very limited knowledge... thanks for your videos..great information.. following from Malaysia
I live in zone 3 in the USA, northern Minnesota and it is hard to find cold climate gardening information…..so thank you !!!
I subscribed because I love your content !!!
Blessings
Welcome aboard
I was made a new raised bed over a grass lawn. I started by using all my leaves (15 large silver maple) shredded with a lawn mower and dumped them as a base about 2-3 ft thick in the fall and covered with a tarp. Spring time i added about 8 inches of screened topsoil on top. I planted squash seedlings and in each hole i put about 1/2 cup of fish fertilizer and 1/4 cup of bone meal. Worked like a charm. 3 yrs on and add shredded leaves as mulch each year and its a massive squash bed basically free. I do add bone meal and direct bury fish waste (yellow pearch guts/bones) kind of randomly in the bed about 8-12 inches deep
That is pretty darn cool!
Wow, that's great. Did you incorporate the topsoil at all with the compost?
We mow the grass that is deep in maple leaves, shredding as finely as possible. Making a row of leaves is better than a pile. Living on the ocean we make several trips to the beach and collect kelp. So before we bid our garden good night for the winter we put a layer of kelp on the raised beds then and 2-3 inch layer of shredded leaves. Then off to the lumber yard to pick up discarded lumber wrap and cover the boxes. The worms love it all and feast all winter long, creating beautiful soil. Save those leaves they are great mulch in the following summer during hot spells. Shredded maple or oak leaves are the best.
Love this setup!
@@GardeningInCanada works really well, we have been doing this for 7-8 years. Our soil is just beautiful, full of life, couldn’t be better
I'd like to do this too. How do you rinse the salt out of the kelp?
@@annieem5693 depends on the kelp/seaweed if it is dripping wet dump it on a tarp/the ground and spray with a garden hose, if it’s dry, we don’t bother, shake it when picking it up and dump it in the beds. I like it about an inch thick. More than that, it doesn’t break down by spring. Worms have to work harder on the kelp than the leaves
I just learned that kelp contains heavy metals, arsenic and lead surprisingly. Not at toxic levels but enough to be in your plants.
You make sense a out of all my composting confusion! Thank you.
I love this stuff! I make sure to soak the leaves before storing them. I find that it is way too dry here in Manitoba in the WInter. Also, I find that the freezing and thawing really shatters the leaves. The method works great on Scot's Pine needles too. I have a couple of them on my property and the fallen needles really choke out the lawn. The needles take about one extra year to completely compost but I have time.
But the majority of my hot compost is leaf and pine needle based. I have found when I age my compost for 6-10 months or more I have tiny mushrooms on top of my compost. So in a way I maybe doing a little fungal decomposition as well?
Again, I thank you for your time and expertise
Yea that sounds like an awesome set up! Especially if you are noticing it being dry in Manitoba.
Thanks for explaining why mushrooms grew on my leaf bin this year, but not other years. This year I did ignore it for a long time.
Here in Louisiana weird little brown wrinkly mushrooms covered the mix of pine straw, green grass clippings, and old potting soil I used to mulch my baby fig tree this year. I also added all the sunflower shells and whatever seeds the birds didn`t eat to the mix and any spoiled squash and cucumbers I had. The 5 inch fig tree grew multiple 3 ft limbs and several smaller shoots which I took cuttings from to root inside to make more fig trees next spring for me and the birds. I`m gonna plant figs in a nearby field for them.
The birds help a lot with garden pests when they have babies to feed so I try to keep them fed and provide clean water each day and take pics of them to share with trail cams. The Cardinals are the stars of the show and crack seeds for their young when they get older and they get along with most other birds except Bluejays.
Plus I do everything I can to create an environment for the frogs, toads, lizards, and harmless snakes and leave the wasp nests alone because wasps feed their young garden pests too and actively hunt them all day. If I hang up a couple of LED lights in my garden at night the frogs, lizards, and garter snakes swarm in to catch the bugs and have babies by the hundreds. I dug a tiny "pond" for them during the drought this summer and kept it filled and shaded. My yard was like a zoo this year. @@GardeningInCanada
Extremely informative and just added a bit more knowledge to my data bank and my growing bank as each year on the narrow country lane where we live I always sweep up the fallen oak and beech leaves with a covering of pine needles and a few broken branches straight into large black bin liners, I could count around one hundred at the end of the week, then off to the north facing polytunnel where they sit for a year and a half waiting for that day when those bags are opened to a smile and delight. It stops the cars from skidding with all those leaves on the road as there is quite a relative slope and at the same time keeps me naturally active in the winter months.
Hi! I loved this. You gave me insights I hadn't connected before, and you did it easily. Many thanks.
(I'm so glad I found your channel. I'm in California, not Canada, but the actual differences are minor.)
Hey im in Florida. I have a huge oak tree. I have been doing leaf mold for many years. Luckily here its relatively fast. Thanks for the info.
I mulch with leaves every year. At the end of the year when I take out my old plants I till them in and with any leaves left in my pile. When the leaves fall again I mow them up and make a pile. To keep weeds down through off season I cover my garden with the shredded leaves. In spring I can push those back and plant my plants. I prefer putting my leaves in the garden so as they break down all that goodness goes into the soil below for my plants. All excess leaves go into a pile to break down and be used for weed control as they break down in my garden through the growing season. Smaller pieces of leaves do not blow away like the whole and half pieces do. I have many leaves so this may be hard for others to do. You can ask people who bag them up if you can have them. They will more than likely say sure take all you want. :)
Very interesting all those videos, thanks for the advices! It makes me wonder if i am doing something not so greath after all. I put shredded left on the soil of my garden the limite weeds and help reduce water lost during to evaporation( i got underground irrigation). I never realy get it mixed with the soil.
Best of luck!
I don't have a lawnmower, but I do have a leaf blower/mulcher, so I mulch my leaves that way. I top dress with them to fight weeds and keep the soil cool and moist below them. Looking forward to trying to compost leaves this year.
I just dig a big pit every fall. Rake the leaves into it, and bury the leaves. Come spring they are usually decomposed because they stay warmer under ground.
Nice! That’s a good setup
Leaf compost is awesomeness stuff... Most people throw away the leaf gold and then buy it back in the spring from box stores at a inflated price...... Keeps people employed right?
Thanks for the video
Aloha from lower western Michigan
Very infomative. My zone is warmer, being in California. I should be able to see results by spring. Thank you!
I live in BC Canada and have been collecting a ton of leaves from the Maples and Oaks in the neighborhood and dumping them all wet from rain into a vacant pond.
I found this video helpful knowing I'm not far from successfully decomposing them. I think I should take a weed whacker and shred those leaves.
Thats so cool!
and add plastic from the stronh
Down in Texas making leaf mould from oak trees which typically takes longer than other tree leaves. To keep the leaves cool and moist in our crazy heat while they break down, I cover them with a layer straw. The straw is easy to move to the side if I need to get into the pile and then move back. Cheers
That sounds like a good idea.
My garden is basically a leaf compost pile about a foot deep every year. By spring it’s only about 6 inches deep I never mix the leaves in the soil only leave them on top., The worms to do the rest.
nice!
Great video. One thing I will say, if someone has a decent size vegetable garden and an ample source of leaves and limbs, it's worth buying a chipper shredder and building a nice size 3 compartment compost bin with a sifter box hanging over the last bin.
Wow! Your video added two vital jigsaw pieces to my understanding of soil science; that leaves have very low nitrogen content and fungi need cool (soil) conditions to develop. Thank you.
Now how about a video on leaf mold: What is it? How to use it? Can you make your own? I'd love to see your perspective on this additional part of soil building nutrient enrichment on an organic level.
Great suggestion!
I always just dumped them into my compost bin with table scraps, grass clippings (not wet), and small twigs. It all composted nicely together.
yea so thats more of a bacteria type decomposition
@@GardeningInCanada I guess being near Vancouver, I can get away with it, as winters here are pretty mild.
Last fall I made a leaf mold enclosure with shredded leaves that was approximately 6' by 6' and 4' tall. I then insulated the sides and top with yet more bagged leaves. Early this spring I removed some of the bags on top and dug into the pile to see if was totally frozen. It froze down about less than a foot before I got into loose leaves. After removing all the bags in mid May the pile was pretty compressed so I did lay out some tarps and turned the whole thing. From November to May the pile dropped from 4' to less16".
I observed than in the compressed section there were no worms but in areas of less compaction it was loaded with native and even red wigglers. I have my worm bins in the same area during the summer and it appears some of the escapees survived the winter in the insulated bin. I found this too in my insulated winter compost, red wigglers.
I shredded the bagged leaves and used as mulch on my beds and grow bags. I started a new bin with the left overs, did not want to slow down the process started Last November.
This spring I used last years finished leaf mold as a seed starter and in my potting mixes. It worked fantastic! Plus the benefit of worms in almost all of my transplants.
I am hooked on leaf mold, thinking about doing 2 large bins this fall.
An aside. I had to reseed a couple areas of my lawn this spring where sweet potato vines killed the grass. After I loosened up the soil, aerated it, seeded it then covered with a dressing of leaf mold. the grass grew fantastically. Glad I had some leaf mold left over.
Enjoy your videos.
Interesting! Is the moisture retention semi high with the mould?
@@GardeningInCanada Actually, the leaf mold retained more moisture than the peat.
Plus I did not get any algae on the leaf mold as I did with the peat.
Gotta love leaf mold.
Very cool
Thank you for information I can understand and use. You have a knowledge of what you are talking about.
Your presentation is great. Most RUclips videos are poor entertainment with a bit of information . I like content.
Guess I am weird but mould is how I spell it.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. I live under a California live oak canopy (7 enormous, mature ones on half an acre). Unlike my neighbors (Facebook and Google folk), I leave the fallen leaves and find they make a nice mulch. I have been doing this for a couple of decades and I have said good-bye to my gas powered leaf blower, which is what ALL of my neighbors have their gardeners use weekly (7 per week). They are into tidy... no leaves (they are carted away) leaving mainly bare dirt (which wafts up in the blower power and covers the leaves of their plants and mine. I hose mine off so the plants can photosynthesize... the have very few plants compared to me (I am a long-time gardener). Anyway, other than the fact that the live oak leaves are very prickly, thick and hard, I wonder if you have anything to say about them. I heard they make an acidic environment. A couple of decades ago I even BOUGHT LEAF MOLD (which they no longer sell), until I realized it was decomposed versions of my oak leaves. I have witnessed fungi growing where there is water (dog vomit, and so many other types, including the white fibers) because originally I put down wood chips. I have several compost piles, but mainly throw in the decomposed oak leaves from the rain gutters and flat carport roof there and leave the rest on the property. They cover the paths and most of my yard.
leaving them behind is completely okay as well
THANK YOU for the well put and super easily understood video explaining LEAF MOLD !!! You 're awesome !!!
Glad it was helpful!
I live in Okotoks Alberta and build leaf piles every year. This year I built a 4'X4' X3' cardboard bin and filled it with maple, cotoneaster and aspen leaves. I watered it down between 1' layers and pressed each layer down before adding the next one. There was decomposition starting within three days. i expect to get at least half the volume to use next year as mulch in the garden,
Hi. If you add water in layers like that, is that anaerobic? I'm confused about what kind of piling is considered anaerobic when there is some air.
That’s all good sense! I shred my leaves and add them to my compost over time as the carbon layer.
Very informative..I appreciate you sharing…Salute!!!🍃🍃🍃
Glad it was helpful!
We use a bagger on the mower and it chops up the leaves nicely. I make leaf mold mixed with my compost, but I also put a 10-12 inch layer of leaves mixed with grass clippings (for nitrogen) on each of my raised beds every fall. We let the grass grow a little longer than usual before we bag to shoot for a good C:N. It breaks down a little over the winter, but it also acts as mulch for most of the growing season, helping to control weeds and retain soil moisture.
I transitioned to more organic style gardening this last year.. and this channel has been a great aid :) thank you!
SO happy i was able to help
I use a mix of both chopped and whole leaves.
Whole leaves on the bottom of the planter barrel, then mix in the chopped leaves into the potting soil and that fills the rest.
I put on some Alaska Fish fertilizer, triple strength mix with rain water.
I figure in 6 months of cold weather, it should be quite usable by mid spring.
I will water with either sugar or molasses water mix to feed things until they get populated.
I have no 'greens' in the fall. Most people don't.
Note: If you put large bags of leaves next to your foundation, you can lower your heating bill slightly while keeping the leaves warm in the winter.
Thank You for delineating North from South when it comes to gardening.
We live in Maine, so we know frozen. It's so discouraging to watch a 25
minute video on, "The Best Way to Grow Tomatoes" only to find out it was
created in Southern California.
It seems there is a very fine line between "leaf mould and Compost". In simple
terms (leaf Mould for dummies) what's the difference overall nutrient wise?
We are in our 2nd year of covering beds, when put to sleep, with finely chopped
mixture of grass n leaves, or chop n drop. Our riding mower collects 4
bushels at a time. If run over a 2nd time, turns into 2 bushels. It does only
decompose by 1/2. The half that doesn't, gets spread around our ornamentals.
Then the garden beds get top dressed with a seafood blend of compost, and
amended individually based on type of plant. Phos for root crops, nit for leafy
veg, and so on.
So, since we have an abundance of grass and leaves, wouldn't we be better
off concentrating on just compost?
TYFS Ashley
Yea you absolutely can! Nutrient difference is minimal but the microbes are different!
I put old dry leaves into the chickens run. The girls loved them. Then after the leaves were shredded and 💩 on I put them in the compost then on the raised bed in the fall.
I usually just cover my raised beds with different leaves every year and maybe add some handfuls of alfalfa pellets on the beds in the fall. Around early May my leaves are mostly gone and I just mix the beds by hand and plant. My garden usually is pretty good.
That's a great idea!
Really great information! I gathered 30+ large bags of leaves from neighbors and ran over them several times with the lawnmower, and they’re happily sitting in pallet bins decomposing. Question: I understand that leaf mold compost is great for soil structure and water retention…but what I’m not clear about is whether composted leaf mold adds enough nutrients to the soil to be used in place of regular bacterial compost?
I'd like to I'd like to know the same thing!
I 3rd the motion!
Leaves add a lot of minerals to the soil. The biggest benefit that leaves bring is food for worms and other beneficial insects. Then they poop and leave you with rich soil.
@@freedomovereverything1776 Thank you for answering this question! So it appears that leaf mold will enrich the soil over time. I filled my grow beds with broken down leaf mold last spring and added fertilizer… had ok results. Maybe this year the veggies will be bigger.
@Carolyn Steele No problem 😊
and yes it usually takes 6-12 months to break down. Your soil will only get better the more you do it.
Great information. I liked this video last year but it makes more sense now.
Glad it was helpful!
Love this video! Going to rake up some leaves… spring for me, as I live in Florida. 🍁💚
There you go! everywhere has leaves
Making it WAY too complicated :( Been using leaves as mulch for years in my garden...grows beautiful veggies!
Do you think burning some leaves too in my garden area can improve the very thin, poor topsoil on top of hard red soil? I have to move fast to improve my soil. I started by planting Southern peas and green beans everywhere this year including Red Rippers that grew vines all summer. There are lots of pines and sweetgum trees here and just a few oaks. I started saving grass clippings too and mulching with them immediately while green. This saved my baby fig tree this year.
@@baneverything5580sorry to pile, but one other thing- I don't know how well pine will work, I suspect it lowers pH, and burning it can make low levels of pitch (tar). Using as mulch is fine, and may lower pH as well.
I should have watched this first.
I covered my garden with a layer of Maple leaves approximately 9 inches deep.
Currently it’s now covered in snow.Wish me luck in the Spring.
I've found out my two giant beech tree's leaves do not compost like most other leaves because of high levels of lignin. They seem to take 2 years so I just keep putting them in my pathways for a year or two then into my composting system. Then I found out they are allopathic and actually inhibit microbial growth. I may shred them and do some more research as I have a million leaves a year - can't waste that! Good info.
I had a heart problem si I did not touch my compost pile for the last 2 years exept adding to it. I cannot wait to see how it looks like next spring
Hope you are much better now
Every fall I mulch as many leaves as possible with my mower and then put them all over my perennial and shrub beds. I have so many earthworms and my soil is very friable. These leaves usually hang around until mid summer before they are gone. I’ve done this for years.
I built a huge open bottom raised bed last fall, bottom layer logs, then put several bags of leaves on top of that and I've been burying kitchen scraps in the leaves all winter. I plan on topping with about 10 inches of soil this year and planting veggies. I'm in the black soil zone of Alberta. I am a new urban gardener and know nothing about gardening except what Professor RUclips told me. Will it be ok to plant in if the top couple of feet are soil? The leaves are not nearly close to being broken down yet.
I am happy to get this information, I will be watching. Thanks so much
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Ashley. My last years leaves got too soggy in the spring, now they are smelly. I don’t know what to do with them? Thanks for your help. 🙏❤
lots of flipping to get some oxygen in there
@@GardeningInCanada thanks so much for your reply. Yes. I also added dry straw.
I've been mixing in shredded leaves to the soil in my raised beds inplace of peat moss. The soil is more reddish clay than dark dirt. Compacts easily. I'm also adding composted cow manure (bought) & wood ash. Should I add in alpha feed for added Nitrogen to this ?
You most definitely could
Thank you Ashley, really valuable information here I've started to create some leaf mold and I've learned a lot from watching your video. I'm also using a compost system from Japan, called Bokashi. Have you heard of it yet? It creates compost from kitchen scraps in a super fast and efficient way by fermenting, using an activator that speeds up the composting process. I'd love for you to do a video on it especially how to make your own Bokashi ''bran'' and liquid inoculates. It just takes about a month to create compost this way.
Yea! I have one video on it but i can do more
Greetings from NS. I’ve seen a few vegetable gardening videos where people shred up leaves and put them in their beds around plants to keep the weeds down, retain moisture, etc. Would this also be a good approach in addition to actually composting the leaves?
I am not a fan of shredding leaves with the lawnmower because it burns fuel and releases more greenhouse effect gases.
To accelerate leaves composting, I pick earthworms when they hide under containers, or after a heavy rain. Just a few earthworms will multiply quickly, chomp the leaves and transform them into soil far more faster.
That is fair. There are those roller mowers.
Been using an electric lawnmower for the last twenty years.
What are your thoughts on putting shredded leaves in the garden in the fall and allowing chickens to work the leaves before tilling in the fall? I live in Western North Carolina. Thanks!
Yea! Love it!
This is my practice:
I not only collect and shred my own leaves in the fall, I accept donations from friends and neighbours. The guy across the street does not even bag his, he just empties his leaf vacuum bag into my big wire bin under my large blue spruce. Tip: those leaf vacuums also shred the leaves.
I shred my own leaves in a plastic trash bin using a string weed trimmer. It reduces the volume to 1/3.
Shredded leaves are kept in a plastic bin next to my backyard composter, and are mixed with kitchen scraps daily. The compost never gets hot, only warm, and the worms love it. The compost never freezes in the centre over winter but stays around 10° C ( Zone 6 here).
The vast majority of my shredded leaves go into the wire bin, about one cubic metre.
Shredded leaves gradually decay in the wire bin, and I draw from that bin to mulch potatoes, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and other plants in the spring and summer. I never dig them in, they just continue to decompose on top of the soil. No till. I see no signs of nitrogen deficiency, and I don’t need to water or weed very much.
By late summer, the leaves in my bin (now getting low) are pretty well decayed. I remove them and store them in buckets to make room for the next “harvest.” These decayed leaves seem to turbo-charge the compost. The worms are loving it and the kitchen scraps don’t last long! It’s 8°C outside and 25°C in the compost.
The one thing I have not tried is adding some decayed leaves to my houseplant soil. Always learning!
thank you for sharing! people will find this in-depth content really useful
SEAWATER FERTILISER
hello from soggy Ireland. Can you comment on this particular hack/rumour. Japanese rosarians are using sea water ( diluted of course) on their roses to promote flowering and plant health. And can you include your views on using seaweed in the garden, especially for growing roses. Many thanks for all your work and I’ve just discovered your channel and am busy bingeing 😊 so forgive me if youve already covered this.
Saw you on Canadian Prepper and immediately clicked on your vid and subscribed, will stay tuned.
Welcome!
Hi. I live in the UK (Cambridgeshire). I use leaves at this time of year but was wondering if I could bag them in black bags and leave them in the greenhouse overwinter. Would that work? Really interesting video btw!
Yup!
Well done Ashley! I'm experimenting with a different way to use leaves, wood chips, wood ash and urine. Basically, it is a lasagna style pile of wood chips, urine, leaves and wood ash, about 6" deep per layer. I also have some heritage breed ducks that thoroughly poop their water pan every night. I'll be dumping that on top of the pile regularly. I expect the initial flush of growth to be microbial, followed by a fungally dominated finishing stage. Time will tell.
I will also experiment with adding a bit of sulfur to counteract the alkalinity of the wood ash. I'm a chemist from years ago, so I want to titrate some wood ash to determine the alkalinity per pound, then calculate how much sulfur is required to neutralize a pound of wood ash. Can one have too much sulfur if the pH is neutral?
Thanks.
Love the idea of 15cm of urine
@@SimonHaestoe that has me wondering too!
One of the keys when adding so much organic matter is adding it in the previous fall. We bury seaweed and whole leaves in the fall in trenches. Add some composted cow manure on top and then add a thick seeding of winter rye. Come spring time here in New England the seaweed and leaves are all decomposed.
I'm also in New England. When do you sow your winter rye?
@@lindajones9191 end of October. By December it will be a thin green carpet. It really takes off in March and early April-then we cut it and till it in.
Thanks for this. I am putting some geobin compost holders in two of my garden beds now in fall, and filling with whole leaves and layers of nitrogen like spent coffee grounds or composted chicken manure. I will turn it now and then until mid/late spring when I hope it's all broken down, and I'll spread it throughout the beds. Then in one bed (also in fall) I am thinking of doing trench burying like you mention with leaves and a nitrogen source, but without the cover crop. How deep are your trenches?
Mother Nature knows exactly how to break down leaves she doesn't need plastic bags and all this other stuff and everything works out just fine
The Plastic bag, increased humidity etc is all to simply speed up the process. if you are comfortable with mother nature's speed than that works too.
Do you cover the leaves or leave exposed? Will they break down faster covered? Thanks Ashley for all you valuable experience shared here❤
I have been gathering leaves for adding to the fall garden. Really like the idea of making leaf mold in plastic barrels as it suits the yard set up. Do i need to DRILL HOLES in the plastic barrels as the leaf fungi does not need air(?) By not drilling holes the moisture would last longer and less dribbles on to my concrete. The barrel tops would be open, wrapped with plastic bag for seal and under a lean too.
I have 7 oaks on my property. At first, I use to sweep up all the leaves which were on my deck and cement . This equalled 30 bags of leaves every year which I let the garbage man pick up. Then, I had a friend take my leaves as he used it on his country driveway. Then, I started to keep the leaves and save it for mulch. Now, I mow and let the leaves just stay on the ground. Better than the dirt! I also sweep up the leaves in to the garden as much as possible. I still have at least 15 bags of leaves which I use and spread around eventually around the property. Lately, I've been also keeping the logs and limbs that fall from the ground. They luv that.
Chicken poo is very effective. I was in more of a rush and applied composted chicken from a farm for 2-3 years along with seaweed and leaves, whole and shredded. This, as well as compost has transformed the native soil very quickly
Oh yes! Great tip
Using leaves to protect the soil surface in my garden over the winter, but will rake them off in the spring.
Thats an appropriate application
Hi, great information!
I was wondering if I'm able to use leaves that had been previously effected by powdery mildew, or had been eaten up by insects, or that have some white flies, aphids, or other worm insects on them; I can cut them all up together, throw them in a bin, wet them down, and leave them to decompose over winter, then come spring, use them as a leaf mold mulch- or is it better to leave those leaves out as they could cause some issues for new plants?
Thank you for your wonderful tutorial video and information! 😊🍁🌱🌷🌻🍅🫑👩🌾
I add mulched leaves to my red worm (vermi) compost. Use old, cool manure. Coffee grounds, not too much. Veggies, weeds and grocery store throw aways. Some sand for the worm digestion. Some forest soil for microorganisms. Old hay. Triple insulate in the winter with plastic sheeting and hay or leaves in between, then the snow covers that. I live in N Idaho. On Groundhog day, the worms are on the top of the pile and it's ready for potting soil.
that is awesome! they are hard workers
I have a mulching lawn mower. I don't rake. Just suck up the leaves with the grass clippings. I use it as a mulch cover.
that is awesome!
Thank you..thought you were too young to know but your ideas here are spot on and resolved a couple years of this unsolved problem ...lack of bacteria..well all carbon maybe does take longer then I thought and not 100 percent suitable for veggies partially composted 🥳
Sounds like you made a good diagnosis!
*soil scientist
I put about 1/3 of my leaves in my duck and chicken pen, the rest go to the top of my gardens. The chickens break up the leavs and the ducks filter them in the pools, i give them. I empty the pools into a 5 gal bucket with holes and gather the soil. I put this on the top of the soil during the year and mix it in in the spring. It has worked great for me. Thanks for the info.
Ashley, thank you very much for the very informative video. I just wonder if we need to punch a few holes into garbage bags (containing the wet leaves) to let air in. Does it help? Would it be detrimental?
It would slow things down only because the moisture could potentially drop
@@GardeningInCanada Thanks again Ashley. I understand that some oxygen is of no significant concern but loss of moisture is. No punctures.
Shredded leaves on top are the best cover for a garden I think. Works great as Mulch and is processed slowly into the soil. They will suck Nitrogen if you put a bunch IN the soil though. Leaf Mold is a present from heaven. I make it always but the best of all bests is to scratch around under an old oak tree in the woods for the top 1/2 inch or so of that beautiful black stuff. A couple of five gallon buckets of that will revitalize a good size garden.
I use ground-up maple leaves in a very sandy soil and I only wish I had understood this thirty years back. There is something about grinding the leaves that brings the worms, and if you are bringing worms in, you are rocking. I do appreciate the nitrogen consideration.
Sandy soil is perfect for leaves
@@GardeningInCanada ; And coffee grinds
Excellent video, young lady; you addressed many issues that no one else seems to be talking about. So, just so I am clear, I can make a large, shredded leaf pile and not have to rotate it? In other words, to create the leaf mold, the fungi does not require a steady injection of oxygen? Thank you. Dan in Ohio.
yea exactly!
I live in Anchorage AK. One year I got a bunch of leaves and shredded them. Covered them with 6mil poly. It melted snow! Next spring uncovered and found huge dried spongelike mass. Shredded leaves one more time and tilled them into a bed. Best basil ever! So if you shred enough wet leaves and trap the vapor, they will heat up quite a bit without any greens. Not thermophilic, but that isn't what we are shooting for here.
Nice! I like that
I'm so glad I found your channel!! I'm new to gardening. I have no experience with composting and composting leaf mold. I have shredded leaves that are being stored in brown yard waste bags in my garage. I live in zone 7a and we get cold and snowy winters. Do you recommend I continue to store my shredded leaves in the brown bags or put in a compost bin? The shredded leaves are dry in the brown paper yard waste bags. Thanks!
Your can do either or. Separate and then adding them to add greens to the compost is the best option. This will help ensure that your compost has a good spread of carbon and nitrogen and it’s not too carbon heavy.
So helpful! Thank you. Love the knowledge and you answered questions I didn’t even know I had 🌱
I usually shred and incorporate leaves in the fall then incorporate chicken manure in the spring. No manure for legumes. I also mulch garlic with shredded leaves after planting.
I put the leaves into a barrel and stick a Weedwacker in there to shred them. Then I add to compost pile.
love that!
Very interesting video. We toss the dry leaves into a hammermill and they come out as powder. Excellent for the garden.
I like that idea!
@@GardeningInCanada Thank you! We are currently getting ready to process our fall leaves again, hard to believe that winter is just around the corner again.