Make Leafmould Yourself

We keep harping on about things like garden hygiene. After a day such as this spent raking up leaves blown off our hedging by the unseasonably high winds last week, we try another tack and suggest a leaf rake, a still autumnal day and a few calories worth of energy expended as being all that is required to clear up this season's leaf fall. 

There are many good reasons for doing this but the best is that you can make your own crumbly, rich leaf mould that (apart from some good exercise) will improve, transform and mulch your beds in coming years... for free.

Trees with smaller, thinner leaves are best because they rot down more quickly, but bigger, tougher leaves are not bad - they just need more time.

If you don't have masses of leaves, the simplest thing is to pack them quite tightly into black bin bags. Just make sure that the leaves are damp - pretty likely anyway, but wet them if they are dry. Tie up the mouth of the bag and then stick the tines of a fork into the bag a couple of times to allow some air to circulate. Tuck the bags away somewhere out of sight for a couple of years, at the end of which you will have the most brilliant leafmould - so like crumble mix that you can use it as is for seed sowing or as an ingredient in homemade potting compost.

Impatient and can't wait two years? Well, leave them for a measly 12 months, and they will have broken down to the point where you have a fabulous soil conditioner or autumn mulch for your bed, hedges and trees.

Gardeners whose leaf output is too much for a few black bags should build a leafmould container. Use four or six tall stakes, depending on whether your feng shui demands something rectangular or square. Make a wall out of chicken wire tied to the posts (use wire as it lasts longer than string, and keep the posts outside the wire. It is tempting to wrap the wire around the outside of the corner posts, but if you keep it inside, then the posts support the weight of the leafmould rather than the netting tearing away from the posts.

Site the container somewhere out of the way - and leave room for another as you usually fill one while another rots down.

Line the bottom with a bit of Permatex or similar so weeds do not grow up and through your leafmould. In one of those scorching summers we see with such regularity, moisten the pile occasionally to speed decomposition.

Not all leaves are equal

Most leaves are fine to add to your pile, but some are not ideal:

1. Evergreen leaves (holly, laurel, conifers etc) take too long to decay

These are better consigned to the compost heap, where they rot more efficiently. 

2. Fruit tree & rose leaves carry disease

By the time your leafmould is ready, you probably won't remember what went into it, so it's wise not to use material that is likely to spread disease like apple scab or rose black spot. If you are sure that leafmould made from susceptible plants won't be used on those same plants, then it should be fine.

Other Benefits of Leafmould

Removing leaves from lawns and beds deprives slugs and snails of nice hidey places to pass the winter months. Dealing with the leaves is a way of preventing infestations of these, the bane of all gardeners, and reduces your spend on slug pellets.