What do you do with those leaves?

On another thread, we started talking about ways to deal with the annual leaf drop, and what to do with nature's bounty. Here were some ideas:

Easiest - run them over with the mower, pile them up and ignore them. Or put them in plastic leaf bags, poke a few holes for ventilation and toss them in an out-of-the-way corner. In a year or so, you'll have leaf mould. (I didn't say FASTEST, I said EASIEST :)

Next easiest and a little faster (if you have a spare garden bed, or want to carve out a new bed): try lasagna layering. Place newspapers on the grass (if your bed area hasn't been tilled yet);, pile on a couple inches of leaves, then some "greens" (kitchen scraps, a bit of dirt, blood meal, etc., some more leaves and "greens", and topped with leaves. Let it set six months to a year and your bed will be ready for flowers or plants.

More effort: Take some chicken wire, form it into a large-ish circle and stake it with a piece of rebar or a fence "T" post to hold it together. This works really well in smaller spaces. Pile in the leaves, maybe some "greens" - kitchen scraps; or a bit of dirt, or sprinkle on some blood meal. Let it set for the winter. Next spring, pull apart the pile, toss it a bit, and restack it. By the time summer gets going good, your compost should be ready to start using, at least toward the middle and lower half of the stack. You can also do this with a large trashcan with a lid, but you'll want some holes unless you like the shocking aroma of anaerobic activity.

Most effort: Build a permanent compost bin of some sort - it can be rigged together from pallets (free for the asking) and you'll have a permanent place for your compost pile. Or purchase a rolling-type composter, which is supposed to make compost in six weeks (during warm weather.)

A few other options:

1. use your chopped up leaves as a mulch. Warning using them in their uncomposted state, they will temporarily affect your soil's nitrogen content, and perhaps your pH (depending on the type of leaves.) Don't use around hostas or other plants that slugs like - the mulch gives them way too cozy of an environment.

2. venture into vermicomposting (worm bin) and use your mulched leaves as the "top dressing" after you toss in your kitchen scraps.

3. In the summer, make a fertilizer tea with those leaves. Good for your garden, a little rough on the olfactory :)

So what do YOU do with YOUR leaves?

In my urban garden, where a compost bin would be thought unsightly ~~~ forget even TRYING to convince my citified neighbors that it won't stink ~~~ I am saving three (that's right friends)..., THREE large 3 mil black contractor's bags full of leaves in an out of the way place so they won't be considered garbage and thus tossed into the back of a sanitation truck.

As you can see, I have a lot of evangelizing to do here about the virtues of nature's genious for renewal.

Adam.

I prowl through town with my pickup and come home with a load or several loads of bagged leaves. Some get ground up by running the lawn mower over them and get used as mulch or added to a compost pile, some sit and compost in their bags, some get added to the vegie garden and tilled in before winter. The more the merrier, I don't have many trees and therefore not many leaves so I have to go looking for most of mine. They are excellent fertilizer, it is a pitty that so many of them go to waste.

sometimes we mow them an sometimes we just let them lay. by the time spring comes they have done there thing and the grass grows up threw them

I put them through the chipper and till them into the garden.

Ever check with your county landfill about compost or mulch? In central FL you can get these things for free from local county landfills. Much less effort than running around collecting raw materials and then waiting for it all to compost. Only downside is that you never know what kinds of chemicals might be in any of this stuff.