We mow over our leaves, then we rake them again, and mow over them again. We do this 3 or 4 times to the same pile until the leaves and grass are so fine, they almost look like instant soil. We use them immediately as soil. It works beautifully! We have 7 acres with 6 acres of forest. Lots and lots of leaves. When you wet the mowed leaves, it honestly looks like instant soil.
I do that. Some I throw over the garden plot and leave in the winter. Just mow once. Then in the spring I turn over in the ground. It controls weeds and is a great amendment.
This works so well! Learned by accident using my leaf vacuum which mulched the leaves that I put in a plastic trash bag and left sitting for a while. I am so happy you made this video to share with others. Thank you!
I use leaf mold/mulch every year. Make the process hands off by perforating barrels with 1/2" holes every 6 inches all the way around the outside of the barrels with a few holes in the bottom. Add your shredded leaves and any other garden clippings, water it once a month or so, keeping it covered. 60-90 days and you have fantastically fungal goodness.
After you have thoroughly chopped up this year's leaves, I recommend mixing a few scoops of inoculated leaf mold from last year's batch before putting it into the bag. This should add moisture, and have most of the decomposing constituents already at work within it to further speed up the process.
I use a different method for my leaves. I plant winter rye grass in mid Sept. and when the leaves fall I put a metal cover over the discharge chute on my riding mower, then I use a yard sweeper pulled behind the mower while I chop the leaves and mow the grass at the same time, the grass clippings get mixed with the chopped leaves. I dump all the grass and leaves in a big pile around my cement mixer. Then I put some stones in the mixer and load the mixer with leaves and turn it on, this pulverizes the chopped leaves into small pieces and I add this to my garden and flower beds and also mix some with my homemade potting soil. this method is a work saver for me.
Wow! So many great ideas here! So much resourcefulness! I’ve taken out most of my lawn since I live in Colorado and we’re in a drought. Since I don’t have a lot of lawn anymore, I don’t have a need for a high powered mower-I have a rotary push mower. So what I tried this year was picking up dozens and dozens of bags of leaves from neighbors and then-sitting on them and squishing them in the bags! Don’t laugh! (Okay you can laugh, it is a little funny. I have to do something to justify the 20 pounds I put on during the pandemic!) Anyway, leaves aren’t super shredded, but they do get more crunched down and I can fit more in my corrals. Thanks for the great video! And I loved the comments!
I'm inspired. I had a tough year last year because our newest garden area is mostly clay. I did put a layer of wood chip mulch the previous fall, and the fungal material that developed was phenomenal, but not quite enough to keep the clay from compacting after numerous rains. This fall and winter I plan to do a lot of leaf amendments.
Get a trailer load of sand and till into the soil. It will break up the clay and lighten the soil. Work smarter not harder, hire a soil tiller for a day to work the sand in. It will do a better job than a human in a 10th of the time.
Great video, love to see people using their brain. In England we have something called the soil association, it is dedicated to improving the quality of soil which like so many issue of today like climate change or the bees and other pollinators are very important that people become aware of and do there bit to help, 10/10 mate. Just a little tip, I was collecting leaves the other day, i used a big plastic gorilla bucket on its side, flick the leaves into it then tip that into wheelbarrow or other vessel, means you can pick up a whole lot more leaves than just with hand and rake and saves a lot more bending down. Keep composting..
Do you, composting is great & has been done the same way forever! AT LEAST WITH THE SAME OUT COME & "Way,Way,Way Longer" than these studies & climate warming idealist pushing they're college professors Agenda. Keep Home Steading, but screw all the battery powered blah, blah ,blah Make America Weaker & Weaker Communist BS)))! These people never owned there own land nor lived off anything but scientific studies from there computers, classes, & ideology "AWARD WINNING"😉books🤣!!! GREAT VID DON'T CHANGE A THING👍👍!!!!!!!
Good video. I've been doing this since I saw this video years ago. One thing I've started to do in the past few years is to spread those leaves not so thickly as I used to. Just enough to cover my raised bed 2 inches thick. I do this just after I lightly work-in what is left of any straw mulch that I used in the garden. I also lightly sprinkle fresh grass clipping on top of those leaves. IN the spring, I work that stuff into the soil a few inches. I also go out and get farm/ranch-produced compost (cow manuer and other good stuff) at $45 for 1000 lbs and put that (about an inch thick) on top of everything about a month before I plant. JUst before planting, I work the top few inches again to mix everything. This year, my tomatoes are incredible! Yes, I did use some tomato food for them as well. But the tomatoes are the highlight of my garden which as a whole, is the besst I've ever had (meaning, you build-up the quality of your soil over the years). Thanks for the video!
Oh man we just got one of those leaf vacuums and it sucks them up and chops them up super tiny for you! I just got several bags finished in 15 minutes. It’s a gardeners dream come true, highly recommend.
What's the hurry? Judging by the volume of leaves you have, if you start a new corral every year then after about the third year you'll have a fresh corral of leaf mould to spread every year after that. Layering the leaves with garden lime and hosing it down each layer speeds up the process and balances the ph. Also, if you're putting your corrals that close to the trees you need an impermeable base (e.g. black plastic or roofing iron) otherwise the tree roots will infiltrate up into the leaf mould before you're ready to spread it.
Do you think if i mix it every week, roots will try to go into my pile? i have no choice of having where i have it and i know my silver maple trees are so vorace.. whereever i try to put something rich, they pick into it.. They even when into a 2 feet high bed ..I believe even putting a plastic, they will go into the cracks.. but a compost pile, i can maybe mix it every now and then.. and roots.. wont notice it?? :))
Just chop them up and put them directly onto your flower and shrub beds. You don’t have to get the leaves ready any more than that. Put the worms to work immediately. Worm castings are better than leaves so get those worms busy! Thanks for sharing the video.
Thank you for sharing your idea. Seems so many replies want to put you down. That's ashame folks can't or WON'T say thk you and keep their condescending thoughts to their self!!! Good Job!!
Hating is the only relevance they have in life. Miserable, zero self esteem. Pain and suffering of others including that of animals excites them though.
I’ve done this it works great, my leaves were a tad wet when I put them in, but did this by accident, I was just lazy and didn’t burn my leaves. Fantastic boo-boo
I used to cram my car full of those black bags, from wealthy neighborhoods. I slit each bag, and threw them in a pile. The next spring, I laid them out on top of a path of newspapers. Then opened them stem to stern and pushed the compost onto the beds, one new, and the other new- and it weighted down the back plastic. Instant access to both beds, and no weeds in the paths. If I wasn't expanding an area, I'd go back over the other paths and beds and refreshen them. Now I collect them from my street, put them in an old foundation and water them, turn 'm, and add peletized lime, once I start seeing mold when I turn the pile. No plastic, but the occasional banana peel gets added. It's beautiful stuff.
Best trick is a gallon bucket of water, half cup of molasses add in 2 cups of uncooked rice. Distribute and mix in. Mold crawls everywhere and compost them in extremely short order.
I think you are speeding up fermentation with lactoacidobacillus like in bokashi. I'm doing the same with my kitchen scraps bucket too. And then burying it in the yard under soil or in plant pots after two weeks. The worms are loving it. You can check it after a few days they're already moved in.
Ok last year we placed leaves and grass clippings and some dirt on a big tarp and it produced a great product for placing into garden over winter ….I used this mix to layer into other vessels to activate them …new at this but was beautiful …..I like your blender too Also. Leaves folded dry into tarp. Can work great too to break them up. …happycompost
we do the black bag trick. about 100 bags a year , throw a piece of dried cow poop in every bag, wet it with the hose and tie the bag off for 6 months and wow....best compost weve ever seen....we are in Panama ( country) it has made a huge increase in garden yields...thanks!
We lay dwn a tarp and make small mountains of leaves around the edges of the tarp then run it over w/ a push mower w/ the shoot always facing the tarp :) Then just transfer the leaves from the tarp to the beds, landscaping or compost. We like it 'bout 6-8 in. then in late summer we add a few inches of grass clippings or sprinkle on some blood meal or cottonseed meal then repeat w/ leaves in the fall. When our kids were lil we told them putting the leaves on was "putting the plants blankets on for the winter" lol
How did you then pick the leaves up once they were mulched? The point of this method was to also get pure leaf mold compost with no grass or weed seeds.
I use my mower, and my much beds are 4 ft wide , 30 inches deep and 50 ft long ..I got lots of this good stuff and lots of clay. I also brought in sand, my garden is fantastic.
You are correct about worms breaking down leaf mould fast. I raise Euros and African night crawlers in it. I use a Sun Joe to break up my leaves which when they are damp almost become leaf mould. I then add coffee from my local coffee shops, wet it down really good and you can have leaf mould in less than two months. The coffee heats it up whether in a black bag or a plastic tote. Good luck.
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. 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.
Nice. I did mine on the driveway with my mower and reduced it to almost powder from several bins (let them dry on the pavement). Then bagged like you said and wow, like spreading powder. In the end, it all works, just do it is the main idea. Ciao
I have bad hearing so I use subtitles and it was so funny when you used your weed eater cuz it said music playing lol. You’re awesome. Thank you for this. I go up the mountain trails and bring back a backpack full of leaves because I live in a desert mountain town. Thank you so much for this.
We have 4 large cans we use. We fill them with leaves, grind with weed wacker then add two shovels of wet dirt on the top. Close the trash cans and leave in the Texas sun. In about 3 weeks yiu have completed compost.
Great tip! Does the can need holes to aerate or better to not have air? Thank you! Thanks for posting the tip and the video. Got so many great ideas. Wishing you abundance and radiance!
@@junipergreene2467 we don't drill holes but the cans are just old trash cans so not completely aire tight. Do have a good lid not to have them fill up with water.
I’m pretty new too gardening this year being the first but I’ve always liked the out doors recently I’ve been having a lot of out the box ideas after watching information videos like this around gardening wild fires and so on now one of the thoughts has been around trees needing nutrients just like every other plant and how we clear leaves from lawns and foot paths but don’t mulch them down and give them back to the trees as well as using them to feed out gardens
You’re on the right path, keep thinking and being creative. Yes you’re removing some nutrients, but soil also needs organic matter and minerals to be complete. Leaves are mostly a Carbon source. This is a great video. He’s referring to this as a soil ‘amendment’, so it’s part of the bigger picture of soil. Also kudos for wearing eye protection. “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Many people pay to remove the leaves and grass clippings (remove nutrients) only to pay again to fertilize (put the nutrients back).
Thats my method. I also throw down the leaves I have mowed and caught in the bagger and run over them a second time, then place either in the compost bin or over the garden bed in the fall.
I used to do the pile method and then what you did, but when we got a new lawnmower with a bag catcher, I would just mow over the leaves and empty the bags onto the garden beds going into winter.
About 10 years ago I bought an electric Black&Decker leaf shredder/vacuum. The only complaint I have with it is the bag is small but it shreds wonderfully. We were putting them in the garden but in the future I'll do this bag trick to add to it.
I'm trying to start composting leaves. We raked up a bunch and piled them up and I put a small layer of our red sandy clay dirt on them and wet it down. I'm also going to throw a little bit of nitrogen fertilizer on them to help compost. I don't have access to manure yet. Hoping to have chickens this year to help with the nitrogen side. Thanks for the video.
I disagree. Here is why. The bag on the back of a push mower is very small. I actually tried the two methods. The amount I can get in that can is 3 times as much. Add in the time to walk behind the mower and the distance traveled. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a bagger on your riding mower...then my argument is null.
For folks like me, who use a weekly yard and lawn service, I don't have the need of a lawnmower. Or the weed eater I had to borrow last fall to chop up my leaves exactly how the videographer did. Beautifully minced leaves that'll break down in no time. But I do do my own weeding... with my new flamethrower.
If you have a mulching mower, it shouldn't have a bag... My Kubota mower doesn't. Pile your leaves in the bin and put the mower in with them. Maybe youll walk 15 steps around that penned in area???
I’ve been doing this for 5 years now I use my push mower with a bagger I collect the leaves that have been Mulched pretty good dump them in a pile in the back yard. Once I’ve done the whole yard I take the bagger off my push mower and have the mulch piece on my mower and I then remulch the already mulched leaves. Turns it into a fine powder. Leave it over the winter and it’s soil by spring. The soil is a pitch black. I plan to put a garden there some day but it’s a Low spot and I’m trying build it up there once it’s built up I’ll fill it and make a garden. Then move onto another spot
Cool. The reason we did it this way is because we wanted it to be free of weed and grass seeds. Did you find that yours had a lot of grass seed that sprouted?
Country Living Experience: A Homesteading Journey It actually looks like a Barron waste land. No grass growing what so ever. Just straight dirt and leaves.
Speed this up quicker by adding a shovelful of garden dirt, water and construction lime. Close the bag with twist tie. Mix it up. Put it down and roll 1/2 turn every week or two. Nice compost in 6-8 weeks.
I collect my grass clipping and mix them 1:1 with the fallen leaves and now them together with a push mower. It's ready to shift in 3 to 5 weeks, or faster with a compost starter.
i have 2 ztr mowers w/bagger and in the fall i use the mulchers (gator)which bags 1/2 and mulch the other half. i put the bagged leaves in the leaf pile with some lime and water. it breaks down pretty well in the winter but i still mix it with old horse manure. it makes a great potting and garden soil pretty quickly. all you need is a bagger and some horses. have a geart summer
There is a big debate on whether pine needles make acidic soil. I saw a video from Alberta CA that tested pine forest soil and did not see a difference in acidity. That said, Deciduous tree leaves break down far faster and make a better soil on my opinion.
Just because I peep all the comments saying what you should have done better 😂 I'm gonna jump on here to say, thank you. This makes so much sense for me. I already have a trash can and weed eater. 😁
Great idea. Try using a leaf blower vacuum with a bag on it. Just vacuum up and mulch at the same time and then dump it in your trash bag. Husqvarna has one that has a metal blade in the mulcher.
I have large oat trees 🌳 on my property. I use a lawn tractor 🚜 and mower to run over the leaves 🍃 several times to mulch them into tiny pieces. I then rake them into my compost pile 10'x20'. I use a water timer to automatically water 💧 the pile 2x a week to keep it moist and speed up the composting process.
I did the weed whacker trick and realized the lawn mower one is so much faster! I rake my leafs into shallow line piles and the mower shreds and snorts it all up!
I had a friend who would pin down a tarp big enough to rake all the leaves onto and then plow a push mower into them until they were reduced to shreds, that technique resulted in a very fine mulch in no time at all. I just pick up the leaves in my lawn mower bag, and mow often in the fall, which has the added benefit of mixing in some grass clippings, which brings the carbon-nitrogen ratio closer to the ideal of 25-30:1. (leaves are about 60:1, grass is 20:1)
My leaf blower also picks up leaves, and shreds them into its own collection bag. But if you only have a Strimmer , what a good idea , to increase the surface area of the leaves. I also have a shredder, but it's very noisy : I don't want to disturb the neighbours ! 🇬🇧😊🌿💕🌿🌱😊🇬🇧 🇬🇧😊💕🇺🇲🌿🇬🇧😊🇺🇲
Our lawn mower has a mulching feature. We just run it over the leaves and it tears them up and spits them into the grass catcher bag. From there, we dump them into our raised beds, water them down and allow mother nature to do her thing. By spring planting time, we only have to go out to the beds, turn the new soil and with a few amendments, we are good to go. I love using what nature gives us.
He neglects to add an important fact. Oak leaves are very acidic which makes them much slower to break down and not ideal for compost. Maple leaves are the best for composting if you have access to them.
I've tried the weedeater chopping thing. It works great! I used a smaller battery powered weedeater which looked easier than the big old gas one. Oh, it's less messy if the lesves are dry.
We also do the same thing but add a dusting of Azomite dust and some Leonhardite Along with very little (1/4 cup) of molasses per bag. Then we stack then on the south side of the barn for a months Then we use this to work into new boxes or top dress growing plants.
If you let it break down in the can or bag, it doesn't generate the insect activity or have what it needs to develop into a rich soil amendment. But by keeping a static leaf compost area over winter, all those bugs, worms, molds, bacteria and microorganisms play a role to enrich it. By spring, what you shovel off is valuable leaf mold and leaf mulch that goes directly in the soil.
I see a fence in the background, if you make a circle with that fence, say maybe 4' or 5' diameter, throw all your leaves inside the fence circle, and take that weed whip to it, till they are as small as you can get them, because the smaller they are, the quicker they mulch, and if you got as many leaves as I figure 8 acres will give you, you could fill that circle up to at least 4' high. That will save bagging all of them, and you could put a tarp or landscape fabric over it, but you wouldn't need to. If you get a water hose, look for a small adapter you can put on it that restricts the flow, but increases the pressure. They use these to help take paint off wood. I have a Kemp shredder which reduces everything to 1/4" or less. I take that adapter and shoot water into the center of the pile and the water leaves a small hole where you shoot it in helping get air into the pile, which speeds it that much faster. The pile will heat up, and when it cools, shoot more water into it, and it will heat up again. During the year, I get alot of junk mail, and I take the newspapers, envelopes, cardboard, any paper that is not glossy and put it through a paper shredder then put that through my Kemp shredder with the grass, leaves, and branches that will chip it into small pieces. If you shred envelopes, don't put those clear windows that lets your address show through, tear that out and shred the rest, it helps mulch faster. The trash can is a good idea also, but I would try getting them smaller than what you showed in the video. But, good video, good idea and good luck gardening. Go Grow Green.
Actually, that is exactly what I did with that fence. It had 4' of leaves in it about 6 months prior and they broke down to about 12" in that time. Good idea about the tarp though.
anyone here knows the starting hight of meterials to be composted to the final hight.. from what I read here it seems 6 to 1.. 6 foot will give 12 inch.. is that right? thanks.
I have a ryobi weedwacker.I use the blades instead of the string.I wack them really small add a little compost to them.I have a blue 55gal drum that had water in it.Also have two BLACK yard garbagebags.I drilled holes all over the drum and made holes in the garbagebags.Breaksdown even faster and there are a lot of WORMS in all three.I have two gardenplots at Floyd Bennett Field Gardens Association in Brooklyn,NY.Yes ORGANIC.
I place the leaves which are a lot but small size around my other trees, and stump them with my feet, I know it is not the ideal... but it is very simple to do.. since they are crushed they do not fly away.
I agree that ff you use a bagging lawnmower and even breaks them up into smaller pieces. I do this all the time. Rack them into a pile and just keep running over them. I even do this to collect the leaves that fall on my street.
Yes, I mentioned adding some water. Urine would help speed the process as well. I tear holes in the bottom of the bag so that worms can enter from the ground.
I have a leaf blower that also has a vacuum/mulcher function. Shredding the leaves works great. Mowing them works even better (especially stubborn oak leaves). :)
I do have a leaf blower with vacuum now. Mowers don't work because it is not easy to pick them up and you get grass seed in the pure leaf mold compost.
Hi...when you pull out weeds from the garden what do you usually do with them?if you throw them in the compost or on other dirt will they grow back since the roots are still attached to them?thanks
As long as you shake most of the dirt from them and lay them on their side, they should not reestablish themselves. We usually just throw them in our walk paths.
I did that myself several years ago. Be sure you cover the black plastic bags to protect from uv rays, otherwise the bags will break up with sunlight and you'll have a pile of plastic and leaves.
I contacted a nearby town that does leaf collection and had them deliver straight to my property (11 truck loads). It saves them from paying to dump at the landfill. FYI...you will get some unwanted debris, but it's worth it to me.
I paid around eight dollars a twiggy bag for five bags of what they label top soil at Lowe's before I learned I could get a cubic yard of compost from a local recycling center. I bought a truckload for eight bucks and it is high grade stuff with not one twig from Lee's Landing Recycling Center in Charleston, SC.
S Kesegich great idea! Must share this one. I have a raised bed 4x 12 x 3 feet deep. Last fall I got maintenance to put a thick layer in. Just can’t wait to plant ,
That's what were doing too!!! It's AWESOME!!! There's also an app for that now, called LeafDrop or something like that. Pretty cool! We just saw some guys trimming the trees by the electric lines and said hey, you want to drop those by our house? And they were like, "Yep" ive almost covered my whole yard and all my beds, and added it into my compost so far, and I have my chickens rotating over it every 4 days. Food Forest here we come!!!
I like this idea, maybe I would add a blade if mine takes one. I dont have a mower because I am in Florida on a sand lot, and the leaf blower/ vacuum we bought makes such a mess with the sand storm it creates. So, I'm cool with the garbage can idea. Thanks for sharing it!!! Not everyone has grass you know!
No, I would not till them in before they are composted. Like with any material, it needs to be composted before it is mixed with existing soil or it will take longer to break down as the soil bacteria are moving much slower in winter. This method will also rob the soil of nitrogen until they break down. You can use them as a mulch on top of the garden and let them break down in that position instead of putting them in the bags.
Country Living Experience okay good to know....I just have a huge yard and large gardens, trying to figure out another way to do it long term, after all mother nature does not compost by piling things up and turning like everyone does now days, it fell to the ground and decomposed where it fell....but I understand what u r saying too
You're welcome. I am actually working on a new leaf video today. I have others in my archives as well like this one.......ruclips.net/video/pN4f4hqR68w/видео.html
It's November 2023. I don't know about the rest of the North America, but In the province of Ontario, Canada, we have an epic white powdery mildew on all Maple trees. For the past 40+ years, I have been composting the maple leaves. But this Fall, I decided not to do that. I worry that the powdery mildew might survive inside my compost bin and create havoc in my veggie garden when I spread the compost everywhere. What is your opinion?
Fencing in a circle 5 ft high full compcted water then wrap with that black plastic they use on the borders of new construction . A roll and 18" high. Wrap up to top.
He heee make worm beds out of leaves AND WATCH EM MULTIPLY REALLY FAST during the winter months. go open your worm bind and look at all WOW > These are Louisiana Night Crawlers
We mow over our leaves, then we rake them again, and mow over them again. We do this 3 or 4 times to the same pile until the leaves and grass are so fine, they almost look like instant soil. We use them immediately as soil. It works beautifully! We have 7 acres with 6 acres of forest. Lots and lots of leaves. When you wet the mowed leaves, it honestly looks like instant soil.
Bet this makes both the worms and the birds happy!
I do that. Some I throw over the garden plot and leave in the winter. Just mow once. Then in the spring I turn over in the ground. It controls weeds and is a great amendment.
I dig a trench in the garden and burry the leaves that I have mowed come spring they are into the dirt well blended
saves time and work
Do you mower on multch or bag?
This works so well! Learned by accident using my leaf vacuum which mulched the leaves that I put in a plastic trash bag and left sitting for a while. I am so happy you made this video to share with others. Thank you!
You're welcome.
I laughed so much when you chopped up the leaves with your weedeater. It's like a garden version of an immersion blender.
Lol. Good comparison
It was a good idea! I have a WORX mulcher which chops them really finely, but using a weed eater is a good idea and most people have one of them.
@@joseeallyn9950; Those mulchers don't seem to last for some reason. I only got one season out of mine, and I love ground up leave for the garden.
I'm just screaming micro plastics.
I use leaf mold/mulch every year. Make the process hands off by perforating barrels with 1/2" holes every 6 inches all the way around the outside of the barrels with a few holes in the bottom. Add your shredded leaves and any other garden clippings, water it once a month or so, keeping it covered. 60-90 days and you have fantastically fungal goodness.
@@The_Scatterbrained_Idiot came here to look for this positive info!!
I have 3 pickle barrels with drilled holes
After you have thoroughly chopped up this year's leaves, I recommend mixing a few scoops of inoculated leaf mold from last year's batch before putting it into the bag. This should add moisture, and have most of the decomposing constituents already at work within it to further speed up the process.
Excellent thought. Thanks for watching.
I use a different method for my leaves. I plant winter rye grass in mid Sept. and when the leaves fall I put a metal cover over the discharge chute on my riding mower, then I use a yard sweeper pulled behind the mower while I chop the leaves and mow the grass at the same time, the grass clippings get mixed with the chopped leaves. I dump all the grass and leaves in a big pile around my cement mixer. Then I put some stones in the mixer and load the mixer with leaves and turn it on, this pulverizes the chopped leaves into small pieces and I add this to my garden and flower beds and also mix some with my homemade potting soil. this method is a work saver for me.
Wow! So many great ideas here! So much resourcefulness!
I’ve taken out most of my lawn since I live in Colorado and we’re in a drought. Since I don’t have a lot of lawn anymore, I don’t have a need for a high powered mower-I have a rotary push mower.
So what I tried this year was picking up dozens and dozens of bags of leaves from neighbors and then-sitting on them and squishing them in the bags! Don’t laugh! (Okay you can laugh, it is a little funny. I have to do something to justify the 20 pounds I put on during the pandemic!)
Anyway, leaves aren’t super shredded, but they do get more crunched down and I can fit more in my corrals.
Thanks for the great video! And I loved the comments!
You're welcome. Glad we could help.
I'm inspired. I had a tough year last year because our newest garden area is mostly clay. I did put a layer of wood chip mulch the previous fall, and the fungal material that developed was phenomenal, but not quite enough to keep the clay from compacting after numerous rains. This fall and winter I plan to do a lot of leaf amendments.
Awesome. Glad we could inspire. Good luck with that clay.
Get a trailer load of sand and till into the soil.
It will break up the clay and lighten the soil.
Work smarter not harder, hire a soil tiller for a day to work the sand in.
It will do a better job than a human in a 10th of the time.
Great way to build concrete
This is genius. I so happen to have access to a weed wacker, but not a lawn mower, and this idea never dawned on me until now. Thanks for the video!!
I am glad the video was helpful. Thanks for watching.
I did this and it worked amazing. Put the compost in the garden yesterday
Awesome!
Great video, love to see people using their brain. In England we have something called the soil association, it is dedicated to improving the quality of soil which like so many issue of today like climate change or the bees and other pollinators are very important that people become aware of and do there bit to help, 10/10 mate. Just a little tip, I was collecting leaves the other day, i used a big plastic gorilla bucket on its side, flick the leaves into it then tip that into wheelbarrow or other vessel, means you can pick up a whole lot more leaves than just with hand and rake and saves a lot more bending down. Keep composting..
Thanks for your comment Alistair. I usually don't pick up the leaves like that as it was just a quick demo for the video.
Do you, composting is great & has been done the same way forever! AT LEAST WITH THE SAME OUT COME & "Way,Way,Way Longer" than these studies & climate warming idealist pushing they're college professors Agenda. Keep Home Steading, but screw all the battery powered blah, blah ,blah Make America Weaker & Weaker Communist BS)))! These people never owned there own land nor lived off anything but scientific studies from there computers, classes, & ideology "AWARD WINNING"😉books🤣!!! GREAT VID DON'T CHANGE A THING👍👍!!!!!!!
Good video. I've been doing this since I saw this video years ago. One thing I've started to do in the past few years is to spread those leaves not so thickly as I used to. Just enough to cover my raised bed 2 inches thick. I do this just after I lightly work-in what is left of any straw mulch that I used in the garden. I also lightly sprinkle fresh grass clipping on top of those leaves. IN the spring, I work that stuff into the soil a few inches. I also go out and get farm/ranch-produced compost (cow manuer and other good stuff) at $45 for 1000 lbs and put that (about an inch thick) on top of everything about a month before I plant. JUst before planting, I work the top few inches again to mix everything. This year, my tomatoes are incredible! Yes, I did use some tomato food for them as well. But the tomatoes are the highlight of my garden which as a whole, is the besst I've ever had (meaning, you build-up the quality of your soil over the years). Thanks for the video!
Thank you. Glad it is working so well for you.
Oh man we just got one of those leaf vacuums and it sucks them up and chops them up super tiny for you! I just got several bags finished in 15 minutes. It’s a gardeners dream come true, highly recommend.
That is a huge blessing. We couldn’t afford that at the time we made this video.
What's the hurry? Judging by the volume of leaves you have, if you start a new corral every year then after about the third year you'll have a fresh corral of leaf mould to spread every year after that. Layering the leaves with garden lime and hosing it down each layer speeds up the process and balances the ph. Also, if you're putting your corrals that close to the trees you need an impermeable base (e.g. black plastic or roofing iron) otherwise the tree roots will infiltrate up into the leaf mould before you're ready to spread it.
Do you think if i mix it every week, roots will try to go into my pile? i have no choice of having where i have it and i know my silver maple trees are so vorace.. whereever i try to put something rich, they pick into it.. They even when into a 2 feet high bed ..I believe even putting a plastic, they will go into the cracks.. but a compost pile, i can maybe mix it every now and then.. and roots.. wont notice it?? :))
Just chop them up and put them directly onto your flower and shrub beds. You don’t have to get the leaves ready any more than that. Put the worms to work immediately. Worm castings are better than leaves so get those worms busy! Thanks for sharing the video.
I like the idea of using the weed eater to mulch the leaves. Very creative!
Thank you
Thank you for sharing your idea. Seems so many replies want to put you down. That's ashame folks can't or WON'T say thk you and keep their condescending thoughts to their self!!! Good Job!!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment Georgia.
Hating is the only relevance they have in life. Miserable, zero self esteem. Pain and suffering of others including that of animals excites them though.
I’ve done this it works great, my leaves were a tad wet when I put them in, but did this by accident, I was just lazy and didn’t burn my leaves. Fantastic boo-boo
I used to cram my car full of those black bags, from wealthy neighborhoods.
I slit each bag, and threw them in a pile.
The next spring, I laid them out on top of a path of newspapers.
Then opened them stem to stern and pushed the compost onto the beds, one new, and the other new- and it weighted down the back plastic. Instant access to both beds, and no weeds in the paths.
If I wasn't expanding an area, I'd go back over the other paths and beds and refreshen them.
Now I collect them from my street, put them in an old foundation and water them, turn 'm, and add peletized lime, once I start seeing mold when I turn the pile.
No plastic, but the occasional banana peel gets added.
It's beautiful stuff.
Nice!
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks!
Best trick is a gallon bucket of water, half cup of molasses add in 2 cups of uncooked rice. Distribute and mix in. Mold crawls everywhere and compost them in extremely short order.
You put the rice in the cup of molasses and water? Or sprinkle rice on compost and water with the molasses
But why? Seems like a lot of bother and quackery. But I'm guessing it won't do any harm.
I think you are speeding up fermentation with lactoacidobacillus like in bokashi. I'm doing the same with my kitchen scraps bucket too. And then burying it in the yard under soil or in plant pots after two weeks. The worms are loving it. You can check it after a few days they're already moved in.
Jeff tacker, check out bokashi composting method. I just found out and started doing it right away with homemade bokashi bran or shredded cardboard.
Rice... nice.
Ok last year we placed leaves and grass clippings and some dirt on a big tarp and it produced a great product for placing into garden over winter ….I used this mix to layer into other vessels to activate them …new at this but was beautiful …..I like your blender too
Also. Leaves folded dry into tarp. Can work great too to break them up. …happycompost
we do the black bag trick. about 100 bags a year , throw a piece of dried cow poop in every bag, wet it with the hose and tie the bag off for 6 months and wow....best compost weve ever seen....we are in Panama ( country) it has made a huge increase in garden yields...thanks!
Awesome! The black bag trick has served us well. Happy gardening!
We lay dwn a tarp and make small mountains of leaves around the edges of the tarp then run it over w/ a push mower w/ the shoot always facing the tarp :) Then just transfer the leaves from the tarp to the beds, landscaping or compost. We like it 'bout 6-8 in. then in late summer we add a few inches of grass clippings or sprinkle on some blood meal or cottonseed meal then repeat w/ leaves in the fall. When our kids were lil we told them putting the leaves on was "putting the plants blankets on for the winter" lol
Very cool. You have a good method as well. Thanks for sharing.
That is so brilliant, saved me from buying a shredding machine, and binning a whole load of leaves every single time , thanks
You're welcome.
I mulched with mulching blades on my lawn mower and it did a better chopping.
Thank you.
How did you then pick the leaves up once they were mulched? The point of this method was to also get pure leaf mold compost with no grass or weed seeds.
I use my mower, and my much beds are 4 ft wide , 30 inches deep and 50 ft long ..I got lots of this good stuff and lots of clay. I also brought in sand, my garden is fantastic.
You are correct about worms breaking down leaf mould fast. I raise Euros and African night crawlers in it. I use a Sun Joe to break up my leaves which when they are damp almost become leaf mould. I then add coffee from my local coffee shops, wet it down really good and you can have leaf mould in less than two months. The coffee heats it up whether in a black bag or a plastic tote. Good luck.
Thanks Catherine.
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. 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.
Nice.
I did mine on the driveway with my mower and reduced it to almost powder from several bins (let them dry on the pavement). Then bagged like you said and wow, like spreading powder.
In the end, it all works, just do it is the main idea.
Ciao
Very cool. Thanks for sharing
I have bad hearing so I use subtitles and it was so funny when you used your weed eater cuz it said music playing lol. You’re awesome. Thank you for this. I go up the mountain trails and bring back a backpack full of leaves because I live in a desert mountain town. Thank you so much for this.
So glad it was helpful and that our subtitles worked perfectly. Thanks for watching and for your comment.
We have 4 large cans we use. We fill them with leaves, grind with weed wacker then add two shovels of wet dirt on the top. Close the trash cans and leave in the Texas sun. In about 3 weeks yiu have completed compost.
That is awesome. Finally someone who understands why we do it this way. Cool idea just leaving it in the can.
Great tip! Does the can need holes to aerate or better to not have air? Thank you! Thanks for posting the tip and the video. Got so many great ideas. Wishing you abundance and radiance!
@@junipergreene2467 we don't drill holes but the cans are just old trash cans so not completely aire tight. Do have a good lid not to have them fill up with water.
@@TXJan0057 Thank you so much for the tip!
I’m pretty new too gardening this year being the first but I’ve always liked the out doors recently I’ve been having a lot of out the box ideas after watching information videos like this around gardening wild fires and so on now one of the thoughts has been around trees needing nutrients just like every other plant and how we clear leaves from lawns and foot paths but don’t mulch them down and give them back to the trees as well as using them to feed out gardens
I am not worried about it.
You’re on the right path, keep thinking and being creative.
Yes you’re removing some nutrients, but soil also needs organic matter and minerals to be complete. Leaves are mostly a Carbon source.
This is a great video. He’s referring to this as a soil ‘amendment’, so it’s part of the bigger picture of soil. Also kudos for wearing eye protection.
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Many people pay to remove the leaves and grass clippings (remove nutrients) only to pay again to fertilize (put the nutrients back).
For a lot of leaves, a riding lawn tractor can cut them up a lot faster. I also mix in grass clippings for nitrogen.
Thats my method. I also throw down the leaves I have mowed and caught in the bagger and run over them a second time, then place either in the compost bin or over the garden bed in the fall.
I used to do the pile method and then what you did, but when we got a new lawnmower with a bag catcher, I would just mow over the leaves and empty the bags onto the garden beds going into winter.
I didn't want to use the lawn mower because I did not want grass seeds in it.
About 10 years ago I bought an electric Black&Decker leaf shredder/vacuum. The only complaint I have with it is the bag is small but it shreds wonderfully. We were putting them in the garden but in the future I'll do this bag trick to add to it.
Cool. Good luck with your gardening.
Thanks. Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks for showing how you chop up the leaves. That never occurred to me
You're welcome
I'm trying to start composting leaves. We raked up a bunch and piled them up and I put a small layer of our red sandy clay dirt on them and wet it down. I'm also going to throw a little bit of nitrogen fertilizer on them to help compost. I don't have access to manure yet. Hoping to have chickens this year to help with the nitrogen side. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching. Hope you get that composting quickly. We are also hopefully getting some chickens "soon".....next spring.
Use urine. It is free and local.
Add spent coffee grinds.
You can use vegetable scraps also. Just not as much as the leaves. 3:1 ration of "browns" and "greens"
Gerard Sammah yeah I’ve heard that. I use those little Keurig things at home.
Just use a lawnmowers with a mulching Blade and a bagger, works a lot better and so much faster!!
I disagree. Here is why. The bag on the back of a push mower is very small. I actually tried the two methods. The amount I can get in that can is 3 times as much. Add in the time to walk behind the mower and the distance traveled. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a bagger on your riding mower...then my argument is null.
Frank M may even help make a faster spoken video too me thinks..
For folks like me, who use a weekly yard and lawn service, I don't have the need of a lawnmower. Or the weed eater I had to borrow last fall to chop up my leaves exactly how the videographer did. Beautifully minced leaves that'll break down in no time. But I do do my own weeding... with my new flamethrower.
Awesome! We just did a flame weeder video this past week. ruclips.net/video/Wzpz9VzTRj0/видео.html
If you have a mulching mower, it shouldn't have a bag... My Kubota mower doesn't. Pile your leaves in the bin and put the mower in with them. Maybe youll walk 15 steps around that penned in area???
I’ve been doing this for 5 years now I use my push mower with a bagger I collect the leaves that have been Mulched pretty good dump them in a pile in the back yard. Once I’ve done the whole yard I take the bagger off my push mower and have the mulch piece on my mower and I then remulch the already mulched leaves. Turns it into a fine powder. Leave it over the winter and it’s soil by spring. The soil is a pitch black. I plan to put a garden there some day but it’s a Low spot and I’m trying build it up there once it’s built up I’ll fill it and make a garden. Then move onto another spot
Cool. The reason we did it this way is because we wanted it to be free of weed and grass seeds. Did you find that yours had a lot of grass seed that sprouted?
Country Living Experience: A Homesteading Journey
It actually looks like a Barron waste land. No grass growing what so ever. Just straight dirt and leaves.
Ah, I understand. We have a lot of nasty hay type grasses down here.
thank you for responding to my question. you would really be surprised by the amour of people who do not.
You're welcome
Speed this up quicker by adding a shovelful of garden dirt, water and construction lime. Close the bag with twist tie. Mix it up. Put it down and roll 1/2 turn every week or two. Nice compost in 6-8 weeks.
That is incredibly clever! Thanks for sharing it - much appreciated…
You're very welcome!
I’m going to start my garden next spring so I’ll try this method on the weekend
Great
That dog is always zooming by in your videos. :-)
He has been doing it for years and years now. Can't slow him down.
I collect my grass clipping and mix them 1:1 with the fallen leaves and now them together with a push mower. It's ready to shift in 3 to 5 weeks, or faster with a compost starter.
i have 2 ztr mowers w/bagger and in the fall i use the mulchers (gator)which bags 1/2 and mulch the other half. i put the bagged leaves in the leaf pile with some lime and water. it breaks down pretty well in the winter but i still mix it with old horse manure. it makes a great potting and garden soil pretty quickly. all you need is a bagger and some horses. have a geart summer
I live in southeast texas and we have mostly pine trees here. Can the dry brown pine needles be used in place for leaves?
There is a big debate on whether pine needles make acidic soil. I saw a video from Alberta CA that tested pine forest soil and did not see a difference in acidity. That said, Deciduous tree leaves break down far faster and make a better soil on my opinion.
Just because I peep all the comments saying what you should have done better 😂 I'm gonna jump on here to say, thank you. This makes so much sense for me. I already have a trash can and weed eater. 😁
Thank you for the kind comment. The other commenters don't know what they are talking about.
I knew I liked this when I heard The Decemberists playing
Cool
My lawn bower makes the leaves muck smaller, don't have to keep bending down to fill drum, much safer for your eyes and less dust to breath in.
Great video. I was thinking of using a blower / shredder vac and then remove the contents into a black plastic bag.
Thank you
I like the weed eater in the can method for breaking down the leaves. I was thinking I have to fo out and buy a leaf shredder. Nice
Thank you
Great idea. Try using a leaf blower vacuum with a bag on it. Just vacuum up and mulch at the same time and then dump it in your trash bag. Husqvarna has one that has a metal blade in the mulcher.
I have one. It’s small. This holds a lot more.
Loved seeing the 🐶 running in this video❤️🌹🍓
He loves to run and run and run.
@Joan Sullivan. Geo bins? Sounds great. Ok imma get one for my small Florida yard with large trees😁& bamboo. Thank you.
In getting ready to do mine I have been collecting all the leaves from my neighborhood trees
I have large oat trees 🌳 on my property. I use a lawn tractor 🚜 and mower to run over the leaves 🍃 several times to mulch them into tiny pieces. I then rake them into my compost pile 10'x20'. I use a water timer to automatically water 💧 the pile 2x a week to keep it moist and speed up the composting process.
What a brilliant way to chop leaves. I recently dumped leaves directly in garden and mowed over them, but that creates so much dust
Thank you. Glad it was helpful.
I never thought of that use for my string trimmer. It's a cool trick.
Thanks.
I did the weed whacker trick and realized the lawn mower one is so much faster! I rake my leafs into shallow line piles and the mower shreds and snorts it all up!
I had a friend who would pin down a tarp big enough to rake all the leaves onto and then plow a push mower into them until they were reduced to shreds, that technique resulted in a very fine mulch in no time at all. I just pick up the leaves in my lawn mower bag, and mow often in the fall, which has the added benefit of mixing in some grass clippings, which brings the carbon-nitrogen ratio closer to the ideal of 25-30:1. (leaves are about 60:1, grass is 20:1)
Thank you. That is a good technique too. I wanted pure leaf mould compost however.
Good Lord man please get some sheep. That dog is dying to herd something.
Hahaha. Yep, he wants to work really bad. Sheep are in the future.
equinox project hahaha...true!:-)))
On my word that made me laugh so much.
Holy Shit i was laughing at that
This comment made me really laugh! Thanks for that.🌸
What a good idea using a weedwacker to break them down. Thanks 😁
Thanks
My leaf blower also
picks up leaves, and
shreds them into its
own collection bag.
But if you only have a
Strimmer , what a
good idea , to increase
the surface area of
the leaves.
I also have a shredder,
but it's very noisy :
I don't want to disturb
the neighbours !
🇬🇧😊🌿💕🌿🌱😊🇬🇧
🇬🇧😊💕🇺🇲🌿🇬🇧😊🇺🇲
Our lawn mower has a mulching feature. We just run it over the leaves and it tears them up and spits them into the grass catcher bag. From there, we dump them into our raised beds, water them down and allow mother nature to do her thing. By spring planting time, we only have to go out to the beds, turn the new soil and with a few amendments, we are good to go. I love using what nature gives us.
He neglects to add an important fact. Oak leaves are very acidic which makes them much slower to break down and not ideal for compost. Maple leaves are the best for composting if you have access to them.
What if that's all I have? Can they still work?
@scout Thank you!!!
I've tried the weedeater chopping thing. It works great! I used a smaller battery powered weedeater which looked easier than the big old gas one. Oh, it's less messy if the lesves are dry.
Awesome! Thanks for the comment.
I use a Scag zero turn mower, connected to a Agri-Fab leaf vacuum collected into its 32 square foot trailer then back it into a mulch bin.
I appreciate your dog doing laps throughout the video.
Thanks. He does that in all my videos.
We also do the same thing but add a dusting of Azomite dust and some Leonhardite Along with very little (1/4 cup) of molasses per bag. Then we stack then on the south side of the barn for a months Then we use this to work into new boxes or top dress growing plants.
Cool
If you let it break down in the can or bag, it doesn't generate the insect activity or have what it needs to develop into a rich soil amendment. But by keeping a static leaf compost area over winter, all those bugs, worms, molds, bacteria and microorganisms play a role to enrich it. By spring, what you shovel off is valuable leaf mold and leaf mulch that goes directly in the soil.
Could you also use a leaf shredder/vacuum?
You could. I am just trying my hardest not to get any grass seed into these leaves so I can make pure leaf mould compost.
I see a fence in the background, if you make a circle with that fence, say maybe 4' or 5' diameter, throw all your leaves inside the fence circle, and take that weed whip to it, till they are as small as you can get them, because the smaller they are, the quicker they mulch, and if you got as many leaves as I figure 8 acres will give you, you could fill that circle up to at least 4' high. That will save bagging all of them, and you could put a tarp or landscape fabric over it, but you wouldn't need to. If you get a water hose, look for a small adapter you can put on it that restricts the flow, but increases the pressure. They use these to help take paint off wood. I have a Kemp shredder which reduces everything to 1/4" or less. I take that adapter and shoot water into the center of the pile and the water leaves a small hole where you shoot it in helping get air into the pile, which speeds it that much faster. The pile will heat up, and when it cools, shoot more water into it, and it will heat up again. During the year, I get alot of junk mail, and I take the newspapers, envelopes, cardboard, any paper that is not glossy and put it through a paper shredder then put that through my Kemp shredder with the grass, leaves, and branches that will chip it into small pieces. If you shred envelopes, don't put those clear windows that lets your address show through, tear that out and shred the rest, it helps mulch faster. The trash can is a good idea also, but I would try getting them smaller than what you showed in the video. But, good video, good idea and good luck gardening. Go Grow Green.
Actually, that is exactly what I did with that fence. It had 4' of leaves in it about 6 months prior and they broke down to about 12" in that time. Good idea about the tarp though.
I don't think it's a good idea to put ink and paper into your garden mulch if you're going to eat out of that Garden too many toxins and stuff
@@yonkromis7883 I agree yon.. I avoid that. especially if one have many leaves and organic waste.
anyone here knows the starting hight of meterials to be composted to the final hight.. from what I read here it seems 6 to 1.. 6 foot will give 12 inch.. is that right? thanks.
I have a ryobi weedwacker.I use the blades instead of the string.I wack them really small add a little compost to them.I have a blue 55gal drum that had water in it.Also have two BLACK yard garbagebags.I drilled holes all over the drum and made holes in the garbagebags.Breaksdown even faster and there are a lot of WORMS in all three.I have two gardenplots at Floyd Bennett Field Gardens Association in Brooklyn,NY.Yes ORGANIC.
Awesome. Nice to find someone else who does it the same way.
I place the leaves which are a lot but small size around my other trees, and stump them with my feet, I know it is not the ideal... but it is very simple to do.. since they are crushed they do not fly away.
I agree that ff you use a bagging lawnmower and even breaks them up into smaller pieces. I do this all the time. Rack them into a pile and just keep running over them. I even do this to collect the leaves that fall on my street.
Read my other responses on why I didn't use a bagger.
Should one add water ? And a few worms ? Looks good . Thanks
Yes, I mentioned adding some water. Urine would help speed the process as well. I tear holes in the bottom of the bag so that worms can enter from the ground.
I have a leaf blower that also has a vacuum/mulcher function. Shredding the leaves works great. Mowing them works even better (especially stubborn oak leaves). :)
I do have a leaf blower with vacuum now. Mowers don't work because it is not easy to pick them up and you get grass seed in the pure leaf mold compost.
@@CountryLivingExperience grass seed? Only if you're cutting grass that's gone to seed...
@@CountryLivingExperience I ran over the leaves until they were fine, then raked and swept the leaves up. Did great. :)
DOES LIVING IN THE COUNTRY WITH A WELL AND PUMPING WATER . .IIS THE WATER THE SAME AS RAIN WATER ?
Ground water is different from rain water.
I have been doing the trash can chopping but I just throw in my leaf compost area. Works great
Awesome!
Hi...when you pull out weeds from the garden what do you usually do with them?if you throw them in the compost or on other dirt will they grow back since the roots are still attached to them?thanks
As long as you shake most of the dirt from them and lay them on their side, they should not reestablish themselves. We usually just throw them in our walk paths.
Thank you very much
I did that myself several years ago. Be sure you cover the black plastic bags to protect from uv rays, otherwise the bags will break up with sunlight and you'll have a pile of plastic and leaves.
Cool. Glad it worked out for you. I have not had any issue with the bags. They are the ultra thick contractors bags.
Can you do this with leaves that have been out under the snow all winter?
Sure
Thank you ! We’ve been looking for other options for our leaves other than burning them !!!
Cool. You're welcome.
Breaking Browder Farm so happy to read this. People need to stop burning and let nature do her job thank u.
I contacted a nearby town that does leaf collection and had them deliver straight to my property (11 truck loads). It saves them from paying to dump at the landfill. FYI...you will get some unwanted debris, but it's worth it to me.
That is awesome. I wish there was something like that around me. I am blessed with a lot of trees luckily.
I paid around eight dollars a twiggy bag for five bags of what they label top soil at Lowe's before I learned I could get a cubic yard of compost from a local recycling center. I bought a truckload for eight bucks and it is high grade stuff with not one twig from Lee's Landing Recycling Center in Charleston, SC.
S Kesegich you will also get unwanted poisons and pesticides with it.
S Kesegich great idea! Must share this one. I have a raised bed 4x 12 x 3 feet deep. Last fall I got maintenance to put a thick layer in.
Just can’t wait to plant ,
That's what were doing too!!! It's AWESOME!!! There's also an app for that now, called LeafDrop or something like that. Pretty cool! We just saw some guys trimming the trees by the electric lines and said hey, you want to drop those by our house? And they were like, "Yep" ive almost covered my whole yard and all my beds, and added it into my compost so far, and I have my chickens rotating over it every 4 days. Food Forest here we come!!!
This is clever, thanks for the tip!!
Thanks. Glad it was helpful!
Excellent video. Thanks. 👍😍
You’re welcome
I like this idea, maybe I would add a blade if mine takes one. I dont have a mower because I am in Florida on a sand lot, and the leaf blower/ vacuum we bought makes such a mess with the sand storm it creates. So, I'm cool with the garbage can idea. Thanks for sharing it!!! Not everyone has grass you know!
A blade on the weed trimmer is a great idea. Glad this was helpful.
Hey could u just put all those chopped up leaves in the garden and till them in before winter?
No, I would not till them in before they are composted. Like with any material, it needs to be composted before it is mixed with existing soil or it will take longer to break down as the soil bacteria are moving much slower in winter. This method will also rob the soil of nitrogen until they break down. You can use them as a mulch on top of the garden and let them break down in that position instead of putting them in the bags.
Country Living Experience okay good to know....I just have a huge yard and large gardens, trying to figure out another way to do it long term, after all mother nature does not compost by piling things up and turning like everyone does now days, it fell to the ground and decomposed where it fell....but I understand what u r saying too
What about the heat affecting the black plastic bad and emitting something bad into the compost?
I don't worry about those things too much. The air we breath has a ridiculous amount of pollutants in it anyway.
Hi, I'm a new subscriber and wanting to learn more on gardening and and best ways to make my own compost, thank you for sharing your video🙂
You're welcome. I am actually working on a new leaf video today. I have others in my archives as well like this one.......ruclips.net/video/pN4f4hqR68w/видео.html
I was literally thinking of doing exactly this but I'm checking for a better method lol.
I love your border Collie, beautiful!
Thanks for the great info! Subscribed!
Awesome, thank you!
I mix mine up with dirt and past compost that I made. Build a big pile and let it heat up and then mix.
This process is a cold process to produce fungally dominated compost as opposed to a hot process which is bacterially dominated.
Very informative and will follow your tips. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
It's November 2023. I don't know about the rest of the North America, but In the province of Ontario, Canada, we have an epic white powdery mildew on all Maple trees. For the past 40+ years, I have been composting the maple leaves. But this Fall, I decided not to do that. I worry that the powdery mildew might survive inside my compost bin and create havoc in my veggie garden when I spread the compost everywhere. What is your opinion?
I have never seen powdery mildew on large maple trees so I am not sure.
The amount of worms that come up for the leaves is amazing. More amazing are the castings that they leave.
Absolutely
Fencing in a circle 5 ft high full compcted water then wrap with that black plastic they use on the borders of new construction . A roll and 18" high. Wrap up to top.
Should I add an organic fertilizer on the plants too?
You can. Every bit helps.
He heee make worm beds out of leaves AND WATCH EM MULTIPLY REALLY FAST during the winter months. go open your worm bind and look at all WOW > These are Louisiana Night Crawlers