Leave Leaves in Your Garden

It's beginning to happen everywhere. As my wife and I traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado last weekend, we noticed trees changing color and leaves beginning to fall. At our home some of the aspens are nearing nakedness. Even the pine trees are getting into the action by dropping their needles. Setting aside the beautiful aspects of the seasonal change, this is nature's gift to you of free compost and mulch.

Many of us have memories of raking leaves from our lawns. For some it's a pleasurable memory accompanied by visions of leaping into the crackling brown and yellow piles as a child. For others it rekindles thoughts of back pains and blistered hands from repeatedly pushing the torturous rake forward and drawing it back. Almost all of the memories end with the leaves being burned or bagged up for the trash service to haul away.

In recent years I've created new memories by rescuing the vagabond leaves and offering a new home in my gardens. Completely organic, they offer great benefits at great cost savings.

Compost piles require a mix of nitrogen sources and carbon sources to decompose efficiently. The greens and browns of plant materials blend and provide an environment perfect for microorganisms to consume, resulting in dark, rich compost. Too much green nitrogen material and your pile gets too hot and even stinky. To moderate that possibility I periodically add dried leaves, a brown carbon source, to my pile after I've piled on excessive green material. The leaves are the same ones I rake in the fall and place into plastic bags or bins for future use. I've even been known to wander the neighborhood kidnapping the bags of leaves that my neighbors placed on the curb for disposal.

Most soil can benefit from an infusion of organic matter in the fall. As I clean up my garden, I turn into the soil heaps of crumbled leaves to decompose over the winter. Excessively cold soil temperatures will limit decompostion, but as soon as the soil begins to warm in the spring sun, the decomposition begins anew. I only do this with crumbled, dried leaves because full-size leaves won't break down as quickly.

For many of my perennial beds I let the leaves become mulch. In some cases this is a great energy saver because the leaves blow into the bushes and flowers naturally, saving me from either raking them away or intentionally adding them. The leaves that pile up around the plants become a natural blanket that helps protect them from severe cold and drastic temperature changes in winter. And like the bits that I add to soil, they'll break down over the cold months and early spring to benefit the microorganisms and your garden beds. Next year I just pull back excessive leaves that surround trunks and stalks to prevent the possibility of rot or fungus. If need be, I add more mulch, typically bark, on top of the leaves. There's no reason to remove the leaves unless it annoys you aesthetically.

To minimize weed seeds blowing in from the dried grasses and prairie flowers that surround my vegetable garden, I'll pile clumps of leaves on top of my raised beds. It helps moderate the soil, adds organic matter, even offers some beneficial insects a place to overwinter. In the spring I'll remove the larger clumps that haven't begun to decompose and add them to the compost pile.

Even the pine needles are raked and moved to become walkways between the raised beds. They do a great job cutting down on weed growth in an area where I really don't want anything growing. Some of them surround my strawberries to keep the young fruit from being in contact with the soil.

Recycling the natural refuse in your garden is a great way to improve it while cutting cost. If you're going to rake leaves anyway, why not put them to beneficial use rather than adding to an overfull landfill. It's easy to do and a great way to make memories for future season changes.

It's beginning to happen everywhere. As my wife and I traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado last weekend, we noticed trees changing color and leaves beginning to fall. At our home some of the aspens are nearing nakedness. Even the pine trees are getting into the action by dropping their needles. Setting aside the beautiful aspects of the seasonal change, this is nature's gift to you of free compost and mulch.

Many of us have memories of raking leaves from our lawns. For some it's a pleasurable memory accompanied by visions of leaping into the crackling brown and yellow piles as a child. For others it rekindles thoughts of back pains and blistered hands from repeatedly pushing the torturous rake forward and drawing it back. Almost all of the memories end with the leaves being burned or bagged up for the trash service to haul away.

In recent years I've created new memories by rescuing the vagabond leaves and offering a new home in my gardens. Completely organic, they offer great benefits at great cost savings.

Compost piles require a mix of nitrogen sources and carbon sources to decompose efficiently. The greens and browns of plant materials blend and provide an environment perfect for microorganisms to consume, resulting in dark, rich compost. Too much green nitrogen material and your pile gets too hot and even stinky. To moderate that possibility I periodically add dried leaves, a brown carbon source, to my pile after I've piled on excessive green material. The leaves are the same ones I rake in the fall and place into plastic bags or bins for future use. I've even been known to wander the neighborhood kidnapping the bags of leaves that my neighbors placed on the curb for disposal.

Most soil can benefit from an infusion of organic matter in the fall. As I clean up my garden, I turn into the soil heaps of crumbled leaves to decompose over the winter. Excessively cold soil temperatures will limit decompostion, but as soon as the soil begins to warm in the spring sun, the decomposition begins anew. I only do this with crumbled, dried leaves because full-size leaves won't break down as quickly.

For many of my perennial beds I let the leaves become mulch. In some cases this is a great energy saver because the leaves blow into the bushes and flowers naturally, saving me from either raking them away or intentionally adding them. The leaves that pile up around the plants become a natural blanket that helps protect them from severe cold and drastic temperature changes in winter. And like the bits that I add to soil, they'll break down over the cold months and early spring to benefit the microorganisms and your garden beds. Next year I just pull back excessive leaves that surround trunks and stalks to prevent the possibility of rot or fungus. If need be, I add more mulch, typically bark, on top of the leaves. There's no reason to remove the leaves unless it annoys you aesthetically.

To minimize weed seeds blowing in from the dried grasses and prairie flowers that surround my vegetable garden, I'll pile clumps of leaves on top of my raised beds. It helps moderate the soil, adds organic matter, even offers some beneficial insects a place to overwinter. In the spring I'll remove the larger clumps that haven't begun to decompose and add them to the compost pile.

Even the pine needles are raked and moved to become walkways between the raised beds. They do a great job cutting down on weed growth in an area where I really don't want anything growing. Some of them surround my strawberries to keep the young fruit from being in contact with the soil.

Recycling the natural refuse in your garden is a great way to improve it while cutting cost. If you're going to rake leaves anyway, why not put them to beneficial use rather than adding to an overfull landfill. It's easy to do and a great way to make memories for future season changes.