I spend much of the Fall raking and bagging all my neighbor's leaves.😁 I do use a gas-powered mower to chop some of them up for mulch. (I find it stops them from matting up) The rest are split between a huge plastic tub that turns into leaf mold, a big wire cage as you show, but I add grass clippings and garden waste to speed up the process. Whatever is left goes into the main compost system. Great video. Cheers!
My favorite way is to take them to my chicken run. The chickens turn the leaves looking for insects, worms and the scratch grains I toss in there. Once a year I go harvest the soil and it is lovely!
For those of us with land and not in subdivisions with mature trees, I’m pro gas powered leaf blower to coral and compost the leaves. You still get in your steps and those leaf blowers are like wearing a weighted vest. Cardio and strength training included with this seasonal chore. And girrrrrl, I know you were finding leaf crumbs all over when you got ready for bed. 😬
Thank you for this simple way of composting leaves. How do you access inside the chicken wire to turn the leaves and collect the soil from the bottom? Do you have to undo the wire each time?
I live on a street called Walnut. The street is sort of famous in these parts for the amount of walnut and maple trees. In fall there are a ton of leaves. I blow them onto the 4,200 sqft front lawn with the battery-powered blower, raise the battery-powered lawnmower to a higher position, mulch the leaves and put the leaves into the two 250-gallon GeoBin compost bins behind the barn. During the year I also add green kitchen scraps to the bins. At the end of fall, I use some of the freshly mulched-up leaves to cover the ground on the 160 sqft raised bed veg garden and other plants around the property to protect them from the 6b growing zone cold.
Two years ago, I started collecting the leaves dropped and blown to the edges of our campus' concrete areas. Easy- peasy. The custodian now collects them for me. No vegetation leaves my property any longer. I haven't purchased soil in two years 😊. 3000 sq. ft. of growing space.
I love it!! And I can’t agree with you more! 😊 I am a zone 5a, in northern lower Michigan. It gets down right frigid here in the winter. My neighbor came up here last week and thought it would be a good idea to blow all of the leaves out of my landscaping… and his yard… and the next neighbor’s….. while I’m in bed with a massive migraine 😣 He meant well, and I graciously thanked him. However, even after I explained why I wanted the leaves left where they were, he would not listen. I am about a block away from a large inland lake, my soil is completely sand. I count on those leaves to insulate my plants and soil, as well as building soil and just push them out of the way in the spring and rake up just what hasn’t broken down yet. It works for me
We have a leaf drop spot in our town. I go down there and fill up large garden bags I got off Amazon. People think I'm weird. I get grass clippings from several people. I get coffee grounds from Starbucks, and the public works folks dump wood chips in the park for the taking. I shoveled 6 yards, in and out of the trailer. Hard that instead of buying bark dust. My friend owns a garden center and I get all her garden waste.
Sounds like you have it made. Just make sure those leaves have not come off a yard that is being commercially sprayed. Those leaves will contaminate your garden compost.
I'm in SE Wisconsin. This is the 1st year I'm making leaf mold. Usually the leaves just go on the compost pile. We'll see which method works better for my small garden. Thank you for the helpful info you always share!!
in the fall I cut the lawn as high as the deck will go so that the grass catches the leaves. The leaves contain grass along with the leaves and dump them into a caged area. When I have to rake I put the leaves into a trash can and use the weed wacker (wear safety glasses) to break them down and continue to pile them up. Kitchen scraps are put into a blender that I picked up at a garage sale (saves me from the DW disapproval) and add them to the pile. By the spring the pile has broken down completely (almost).
I used to live in a subdivision with no leaves but one medium size live oak. I saw a neighbor with no less than 30 bags of leaves at the curb and wanted so badly to ask if I could have them. But didn't. I had major leaf envy. 😅
Last year we planted a bunch of shrubs including elderberry along one side of a vacation house. I instructed my husband to blow the leave around them in the fall. (Sorry, he has to blow leaves) By the next spring it was amazing to see those plants and feel the moisture under the leaves and around the plants. The “soil” here is mostly sand and awful to grow in. Five of the shrubs were bare root elderberry and in the first year I harvested 4lbs of berries from 1 year old plants! This was after the birds had some. They were LOADED down with berries.
as a professional gardener if you saw me working at your neighborhood and asked me to take the leaves i collected, i would be very happy. i wont have to remove it from the property, so it will save me time and effort. as for the leaf blower - you cant beat the results and speed you get from it. we usually blow the leaves to the road because its easier to collect them there. and electric leaf blowers are super quiet. last tip - throw the leaves into your compost bean or add to the pile green material. it would take 4 months for it to break down entirely. it will be ready to use in the spring!
I'm sorry. I've had 2 back surgeries. I raked 3 strokes this year and was down for a couple of days. I have a leaf shredder vacuum. It is loud. Ear plugs and ear muffs. If I left those leaves, lawn would die. If not shreaded they would be a slimey, matted mess in the garden that would take several months in the spring to break down. Shreaded, the garden is beautiful. My neighbor throws his leafs over the fence(mutally helpful) I vacuum and shread them. My grandson delivers my daughters leafs. I vacuum and shread them from the truck. I can not get enough SHREADED leafs. They help immensely with my food forest in process. Only reason I can't rake them is the twisting motion
First of all… I love your videos! I use a blower but when working with leaves, I blow the leaves onto the lawn. I then put my lawn clippings and leaves into a pile and have been doing this for a while. It’s a great way to compost. However, I did try to leave leaves underneath the trees that they fell from, and we get a ton of rain in the winter time and so we had a terrible pancake mess of compressed leaves. I wonder if I did just enclose the leaves into a large area even with lots and lots of rain. Maybe it would still be OK? Any advice from you gardeners out there?
That's a great question. I have 2 round cages sitting in an area that is just dirt and leaves all year long and I do not have a weed issue, however the other 2 wire cages are sitting in the yard and the grass touches them and they were a nightmare this summer. I have cleaned the area up and put heavy clear plastic under each wire cage that extends out pass the edges of the cage by several feet. I am hoping this coming summer this will eliminate the weeds growing into the wire cages. Hope this helps
Hahaha!! Driving out looking for the right yard's trees whose leaves have been bagged and put to the curb: In my neck of the Northern Ontario 🇨🇦 woods, we call it (proudly) Leaf Rustling ... No apologies!!
Would mulch mowing the leaves and then adding them to the enclosed area speed up the process or is it better to let the whole leaves breakdown themselves?
We have been doing this as well and there’s beautiful compost ready but I also see some weeds growing as well. I think that means I can’t use it from research. Thoughts?
I have been mulching leaves with a Honda mulching mower and using the wire cage method for years. No lie it takes a solid two years for mulched leaves to finally break down into a rich soil. Looking at the leaves you are composing and they are not chopped up by a mulcher will probably take 3 or more years to break down. However, if a person takes the time and it isn't easy work at all to shovel out all the leaves in one wire cage out and transfer to another cage several times during the year, you could possibly get soil sooner. This is a hard process and I think people get disappointed when they think all you have to do is dump leaves into a basket and next garden season you are set to go because you aren't. If you stick with the composting, in 5 years you can easily have a working system of constantly having this rich soil added to your garden or containers. Another thought that will advance the breakdown of the leaves is to add green to it. Using a mower will blend the leaves and the grass for a quicker turnaround time. Forget the raking, that's brutal work. Fitness centers are for workouts so use a mulching lawnmower and knock this job out quickly so you can hit the gym for a great whole body workout. Richmond, VA
I'm absolutely dying to go around the neighborhood and collect everyone's leaves! BUT - That's not a good idea because you could be introducing foreign pests into your yard. What are your thoughts on this? 🙏🏻
I drive around and pick-up black plastic trash bags full of leaves that are left on the curb. I don't worry about pest, but I do not pick-up grass clippings. They sometimes contain Weed and Feed fertilizers. I poisoned my garden once with someones grass clippings.
@@rachelflamdesign You can tell, leaves, even chopped up, are much bulkier. grass clipping are usually very dense. There is usually some holes in the bags to see. When I remove only part of the pile I make sure the piles are left neat, not scattered. Sometimes I will get bags with leaves and trash, makes me mad.
@@rachelflamdesign You can tell the difference, that grass clippings are very heavy and about 1/2 full and leaf bags are full and lighter. And yes, you can make a small hole, but usually there are already a few holes in the bags.
For small yards I think the raking and composting isn't bad. I totally agree, if you have acres and plenty of trees it isn't efficient lol. You could mulch some into the lawn and blow the rest onto a tarp for transport to your garden/compost pile.
@ totally mulching with a lawn mower into yard works too. And yes for small yards absolutely a rake is great. Don’t get me wrong def take a lot but it would be stupid to on 10 acres in some areas.
I struggle with ear issues. I don’t know what to do with myself when those leaf blowers get going. I feel like a dog with fire crackers. It is so painful on the ears.
The compound in them that makes them bad for other plants does break down over time. Just make sure your leaves are fully decomposed before you spread them around your garden.
I’m the crazy guy on our street who sucks up the neighborhood to create mulch for my native garden. Unfortunately I had to have my 100 yo white oak removed. Oak leaves are huge so I need to 2x mulch them.
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I spend much of the Fall raking and bagging all my neighbor's leaves.😁
I do use a gas-powered mower to chop some of them up for mulch. (I find it stops them from matting up)
The rest are split between a huge plastic tub that turns into leaf mold, a big wire cage as you show, but I add grass clippings and garden waste to speed up the process.
Whatever is left goes into the main compost system. Great video. Cheers!
My favorite way is to take them to my chicken run. The chickens turn the leaves looking for insects, worms and the scratch grains I toss in there. Once a year I go harvest the soil and it is lovely!
GREAT INFORMATION 👍 NATURE REALLY DOES TAKE CARE OF ITSELF 😊
For those of us with land and not in subdivisions with mature trees, I’m pro gas powered leaf blower to coral and compost the leaves. You still get in your steps and those leaf blowers are like wearing a weighted vest. Cardio and strength training included with this seasonal chore.
And girrrrrl, I know you were finding leaf crumbs all over when you got ready for bed. 😬
Thank you for this simple way of composting leaves. How do you access inside the chicken wire to turn the leaves and collect the soil from the bottom? Do you have to undo the wire each time?
I live on a street called Walnut. The street is sort of famous in these parts for the amount of walnut and maple trees. In fall there are a ton of leaves. I blow them onto the 4,200 sqft front lawn with the battery-powered blower, raise the battery-powered lawnmower to a higher position, mulch the leaves and put the leaves into the two 250-gallon GeoBin compost bins behind the barn. During the year I also add green kitchen scraps to the bins.
At the end of fall, I use some of the freshly mulched-up leaves to cover the ground on the 160 sqft raised bed veg garden and other plants around the property to protect them from the 6b growing zone cold.
Two years ago, I started collecting the leaves dropped and blown to the edges of our campus' concrete areas. Easy- peasy. The custodian now collects them for me. No vegetation leaves my property any longer. I haven't purchased soil in two years 😊. 3000 sq. ft. of growing space.
I love it!! And I can’t agree with you more! 😊 I am a zone 5a, in northern lower Michigan. It gets down right frigid here in the winter. My neighbor came up here last week and thought it would be a good idea to blow all of the leaves out of my landscaping… and his yard… and the next neighbor’s….. while I’m in bed with a massive migraine 😣 He meant well, and I graciously thanked him. However, even after I explained why I wanted the leaves left where they were, he would not listen. I am about a block away from a large inland lake, my soil is completely sand. I count on those leaves to insulate my plants and soil, as well as building soil and just push them out of the way in the spring and rake up just what hasn’t broken down yet. It works for me
Oh wow. Good intentions but...
I use my tree leaves for my raized beds its really the best 👌
Great video! I am envious that you can jump into a pile of leaves and not have an allergy attack, LOL!
The wonders of nature are the gifts from GOD! 😊 I only have one tree but I’m keeping the leaves!
We have a leaf drop spot in our town. I go down there and fill up large garden bags I got off Amazon. People think I'm weird. I get grass clippings from several people. I get coffee grounds from Starbucks, and the public works folks dump wood chips in the park for the taking. I shoveled 6 yards, in and out of the trailer. Hard that instead of buying bark dust. My friend owns a garden center and I get all her garden waste.
Sounds like you have it made. Just make sure those leaves have not come off a yard that is being commercially sprayed. Those leaves will contaminate your garden compost.
You are so lucky to have access to so much good stuff !😊
I'm in SE Wisconsin. This is the 1st year I'm making leaf mold. Usually the leaves just go on the compost pile. We'll see which method works better for my small garden.
Thank you for the helpful info you always share!!
in the fall I cut the lawn as high as the deck will go so that the grass catches the leaves. The leaves contain grass along with the leaves and dump them into a caged area. When I have to rake I put the leaves into a trash can and use the weed wacker (wear safety glasses) to break them down and continue to pile them up. Kitchen scraps are put into a blender that I picked up at a garage sale (saves me from the DW disapproval) and add them to the pile. By the spring the pile has broken down completely (almost).
I used to live in a subdivision with no leaves but one medium size live oak. I saw a neighbor with no less than 30 bags of leaves at the curb and wanted so badly to ask if I could have them. But didn't. I had major leaf envy. 😅
Last year we planted a bunch of shrubs including elderberry along one side of a vacation house. I instructed my husband to blow the leave around them in the fall. (Sorry, he has to blow leaves) By the next spring it was amazing to see those plants and feel the moisture under the leaves and around the plants. The “soil” here is mostly sand and awful to grow in. Five of the shrubs were bare root elderberry and in the first year I harvested 4lbs of berries from 1 year old plants! This was after the birds had some. They were LOADED down with berries.
as a professional gardener if you saw me working at your neighborhood and asked me to take the leaves i collected, i would be very happy.
i wont have to remove it from the property, so it will save me time and effort.
as for the leaf blower - you cant beat the results and speed you get from it. we usually blow the leaves to the road because its easier to collect them there. and electric leaf blowers are super quiet.
last tip - throw the leaves into your compost bean or add to the pile green material. it would take 4 months for it to break down entirely.
it will be ready to use in the spring!
I'm sorry. I've had 2 back surgeries. I raked 3 strokes this year and was down for a couple of days. I have a leaf shredder vacuum. It is loud. Ear plugs and ear muffs. If I left those leaves, lawn would die. If not shreaded they would be a slimey, matted mess in the garden that would take several months in the spring to break down. Shreaded, the garden is beautiful. My neighbor throws his leafs over the fence(mutally helpful) I vacuum and shread them. My grandson delivers my daughters leafs. I vacuum and shread them from the truck. I can not get enough SHREADED leafs. They help immensely with my food forest in process. Only reason I can't rake them is the twisting motion
Thx for these helpful tips! 😊
First of all… I love your videos! I use a blower but when working with leaves, I blow the leaves onto the lawn. I then put my lawn clippings and leaves into a pile and have been doing this for a while. It’s a great way to compost. However, I did try to leave leaves underneath the trees that they fell from, and we get a ton of rain in the winter time and so we had a terrible pancake mess of compressed leaves. I wonder if I did just enclose the leaves into a large area even with lots and lots of rain. Maybe it would still be OK? Any advice from you gardeners out there?
Tarp is the best way 😊
Great video!
How do you keep weed out of your compost.
That's a great question. I have 2 round cages sitting in an area that is just dirt and leaves all year long and I do not have a weed issue, however the other 2 wire cages are sitting in the yard and the grass touches them and they were a nightmare this summer. I have cleaned the area up and put heavy clear plastic under each wire cage that extends out pass the edges of the cage by several feet. I am hoping this coming summer this will eliminate the weeds growing into the wire cages. Hope this helps
I live in Chicago. I took leaves from the street. I’m on my way to a better garden!
This grandma uses a battery blower and a rake for the massive amounts of leaves from all the mature trees in my yard. Free compost and mulch!
Thanks ❤
I have 2ft by 16ft beds!
What is your advice for planting the gardenary way!?
Check out this video for how we work out which plants to add to a bed: ruclips.net/video/hwUWwI2_FXY/видео.html
Hahaha!! Driving out looking for the right yard's trees whose leaves have been bagged and put to the curb: In my neck of the Northern Ontario 🇨🇦 woods, we call it (proudly) Leaf Rustling ... No apologies!!
Make sure the yard is not being sprayed by those commercial companies. The leaves will contaminate your garden compost....
@@chpsusan Hence the RIGHT yard. 😉
Leaf rustling! I love that
Would mulch mowing the leaves and then adding them to the enclosed area speed up the process or is it better to let the whole leaves breakdown themselves?
Definitely mulch the leaves up first and if all possible add some green to the browns to speed up the process
@ thank you! I see this recommended for improving garden soil, but would it also work to rebuild soil that was disturbed by heavy excavation work?
It should
I mow my leaves with a bagging mower and then put them on my garden
We have been doing this as well and there’s beautiful compost ready but I also see some weeds growing as well. I think that means I can’t use it from research. Thoughts?
I completely agree. I never understood why people are obsessed raking leaves. We l9ve nature but won't allow it to do their natural thing
Because humans strive to achieve something that's not real; perfection
Why not burlap bags?
Those work!
I have been mulching leaves with a Honda mulching mower and using the wire cage method for years. No lie it takes a solid two years for mulched leaves to finally break down into a rich soil. Looking at the leaves you are composing and they are not chopped up by a mulcher will probably take 3 or more years to break down. However, if a person takes the time and it isn't easy work at all to shovel out all the leaves in one wire cage out and transfer to another cage several times during the year, you could possibly get soil sooner. This is a hard process and I think people get disappointed when they think all you have to do is dump leaves into a basket and next garden season you are set to go because you aren't. If you stick with the composting, in 5 years you can easily have a working system of constantly having this rich soil added to your garden or containers. Another thought that will advance the breakdown of the leaves is to add green to it. Using a mower will blend the leaves and the grass for a quicker turnaround time. Forget the raking, that's brutal work. Fitness centers are for workouts so use a mulching lawnmower and knock this job out quickly so you can hit the gym for a great whole body workout. Richmond, VA
I'm absolutely dying to go around the neighborhood and collect everyone's leaves! BUT - That's not a good idea because you could be introducing foreign pests into your yard.
What are your thoughts on this? 🙏🏻
My overall philosophy is to not stress about pests. But that could certainly be a concern
I drive around and pick-up black plastic trash bags full of leaves that are left on the curb. I don't worry about pest, but I do not pick-up grass clippings. They sometimes contain Weed and Feed fertilizers. I poisoned my garden once with someones grass clippings.
@williammikell2210 in the black plastic bags you can't tell if it's only leaves or grass clippings too. Do you open them and take a look inside first?
@@rachelflamdesign You can tell, leaves, even chopped up, are much bulkier. grass clipping are usually very dense. There is usually some holes in the bags to see. When I remove only part of the pile I make sure the piles are left neat, not scattered. Sometimes I will get bags with leaves and trash, makes me mad.
@@rachelflamdesign You can tell the difference, that grass clippings are very heavy and about 1/2 full and leaf bags are full and lighter. And yes, you can make a small hole, but usually there are already a few holes in the bags.
Sorry not sorry leaf blower all the way. People who haves acres would be raking for weeks 😂
For small yards I think the raking and composting isn't bad. I totally agree, if you have acres and plenty of trees it isn't efficient lol.
You could mulch some into the lawn and blow the rest onto a tarp for transport to your garden/compost pile.
@ totally mulching with a lawn mower into yard works too. And yes for small yards absolutely a rake is great. Don’t get me wrong def take a lot but it would be stupid to on 10 acres in some areas.
@@AnticipatedHedgehog that's what we do, we mulch it with the mower. The area around the garden we dump into the garden to compost In place.
I struggle with ear issues. I don’t know what to do with myself when those leaf blowers get going. I feel like a dog with fire crackers. It is so painful on the ears.
We are in our 70's and no way we can rake acres of leaves. We ride over them with the lawn tractor and dump .😂❤
what about black walnut tree leaves
The compound in them that makes them bad for other plants does break down over time. Just make sure your leaves are fully decomposed before you spread them around your garden.
2:20 Karen, is that you?
I’m the crazy guy on our street who sucks up the neighborhood to create mulch for my native garden. Unfortunately I had to have my 100 yo white oak removed. Oak leaves are huge so I need to 2x mulch them.