All the leaves are brown 🍂 and the sky is grey☁️ The autumn leaves start to fall… But here’s a silver lining 🌤because all those leaves can be turned into gardeners’ gold!
Ben shows us a variety of uses for fallen leaves, putting all their goodness to use around the garden, from protecting plants to making leaf mold and mulching. So don’t just watch the falling leaves drift by your window- get out and get raking!
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Black Walnut leaves myth? Kind of.
I compost leaves, including those from several Black Walnut trees on my property. The issue with these leaves is the chemical compound called juglone, which is toxic to plants. However, juglone deteriorates after being in contact with air, water and bacteria after about two weeks.
Thus, Black Walnut leaves are okay to compost but should not be used as a mulch
Thank you Ben, I’ve been saving a bin or two for years but lately our neighborhood has been plagued with rats and mice, how do I keep mounds of leaves without inviting critters to set up home?
The leaves are just starting to fall here in the pacific northwest. Yesterday I mowed up some leaves because I'm out !! of leaves for the compost bins. Great thoughts for other uses! And yes, the neighbors think I'm a little strange 🙂
I have been told not to use oak leaves in my garden (California scrub oak). Any thoughts or comments on this? I do use them in paths, but not around my plants.
Great video Ben! I'm a lazy gardener…each fall I blow leaves into long furroughs across my lawn mulch with my lawn tractor running over it a few times. I then blow the mulch all over my lawn to build that soil for next year's lawn. Living on the edge of a forest I have much more leaves that my lawn technique can handle so I blow bunches of leaves into low piles and also mulch with my lawn tractor. But instead of blowing all over the lawn. I then erect a a leaf "corral" on the outer edges of my property with a few stakes in a round shape then wrapping weed fabric around the stakes and then chicken wire wrapped around the fabric for stability. I leave a "door" open to the round structure open and I blow the leaves into it. Fall and Spring rains work to break down the leaf mulch. The weed fabric keeps the leaves moist. The mulching and moisture helps them to break down in to leaf mold very quickly yielding compost by mid-late spring. A word of caution to folks however is to remember leaves are a "brown" ingredient to compost and rob soils of nitrogen to completely break down and it will rob your garden area of nitrogen as well. You can adjust that deficit with adding nitrogen fertilizers or poultry/cow/rabbit manure. So I always lay down a sprinkling of chicken manure over the leaf mulch when applied to my raised beds that I age in plastic 55 gal barrels. Both the leaves and chicken manure are not labor intensive as I prepare them and let both set for a year before using.
Thank you! What about magnolia leaves? They never seem to break down.
i laughed out loud when I saw you dropping leaves on your beds. Out here in Western Kansas USA a calm breeze is about 6-10 mph so I could just see those leaves blowing away quickly. but then you suggested ways to hold them down. Dont think the bamboo is heavy enough here but will try the wire mesh.
I get my leaves from my mom's yard as I have no trees of my own. A bagger on the lawnmower works better than raking.
for turning compost, i have found a hay pitchfork works much better than garden fork or hands. has nice narrow smooth tines to get into packed down stuff.
I hope your neighbours don' t realize how useful leaves are, otherwise you will get into a fight with another crackpot soon!
That's a great idea of bagging up leaves. I leave some of the leaves around the edges of my yard, so that ground bee can use them for over wintering. Thanks for another helpful video.
I drive around the week of bulk trash pickup and go through people's bags, snagging any mulched leaves as I find them. I also know which neighborhoods have a lot of pine trees in case I want pine straw to add some acid!
It is mid October here in Vermont and just about time to plant my garlic. (I look forward to your upcoming video on that topic). There are lots of maple trees around here, so lots of leaves. I compost them to leaf mold and then use that rich mulch to cover the newly planted garlic beds. I top off the beds with about a foot thick mulch blanket of spoiled hay. The garlic endures the bitter cold and winter snow and then in spring begins to sprout. I then have to rake back the mulch because it has become a thick matted mass, which the new sprouts cannot easily get through. Once the garlic is up, I replace the mulch to suppress weeds around the plants. This is part of my annual routine here in the woods, where leaves are free and become part of my food through the garlic.
My husband in the past would gather them and dump them in the compost piles in the woods around the yard. Thank would place the finished compost in my garden beds. This year I plan on placing the leaves on my spent garden beds so they will break down with the help of earthworms. Thank you for this video.
I use the lawn mower with grass collector for leaves.
Thanks Ben. Always helpful (love your video on propogating strawberries!). In the spring, do we till in the leaves that didn't break down over the winter?
And if you already have a garbage bag with some holes in it that you were going to throw out you can use it for leaf mould 🙂
I would love to do this but I think I’m allergic, is this the same leaf mould that is a common allergen in fall?
use leaves whole as the carbon source making compost. The mix is straight horse manure not horse bedding and the combination makes an excellent compost.
This answers the question I left on one of your other videos. I cleared out my raised beds yesterday and planned to buy bags of compost for the beds but now I won't have to! There are plenty of leaves to rake up in the yard to enrich the soil for next spring. Thank you!
I didn’t understand his advice on making the cage to stack leaves in when he said to “cover the leaves if it’s wet where you are”. I’m in Maine with snow so should I cover the entire leaf cage?
Leaves are one of the best things you can add to your garden. Make sure to shred the leaves and lay them on top of the soil. Shredding will let them decompose faster and if you incorporate them into the soil you will need to add nitrogen so the leaves don't use up all the nitrogen in your soil when they decompose. I just pile them on my raised beds every year and then cover with a fine plastic netting so they don't go anywhere. In the spring I just dig a hole in them and plant my plants. Keep in mind some leaves are bad for vegetable gardens. Black walnut leaves for example you should never ever use in your garden or raised beds. I use mostly Oak leaves because that's what I have available. Maple leaves break down much faster than Oak leaves. Your garden will reward you for using leaves but even so you should still have a soil test yearly and amend accordingly.
I have trees in my road and the leaves blow into my drive and i just sweep them up and compost themxx
I add my used coffee and urine to my leaves does a good job
Would it benefit or be a problem to cover the leaves with a tarp in the garden?
Hold do you keep the leaves from molding? I have used grass clippings to keep weeds at bay but if I let it sit the white mold is horrible.
I get pine needles in my shredded leaves, and as long as they are dead, and brown they are fine to use. They breakdown as easily as the deciduous leaves. The PH is neutral, and safe for my compost worms.