more on collecting leaves for the garden

In my October garden to-do list I mentioned saving/stealing leaves for mulching the garden.  Really, this is such a cheap, easy, and beneficial thing to do for the garden, I have no idea why everybody doesn't do it! And don't just take my word for it: Donna Balzer recently wrote about how leaves have more nutrients than manure and Nora Bryan recently wrote about how NOT cleaning up the garden is best practice in Calgary's climate because the plants left standing and the leaf mulch will catch the snow and also insulate our gardens against Calgary's drastic winter temperature changes and dryness (Chinooks).

If you haven't started, it's not too late to save leaves for the garden!  Here are some tips to consider:

• If you have lots of your own leaves, save them!  Rake them onto the garden.  It's better to wait until the perennials have died back so the plants don't smother under too many leaves, but a few leaves in between the still-growing perennials shouldn't hurt anything.
• If you've got extra, start a dedicated compost bin of just leaves, or do the almost zero-work method of turning them into leaf mold that I described in this post last year.  If you've got a lawn mower or mulcher, chop of the leaves first for faster decomposition, but it's not necessary if the leaves are small (see below.)
• If you don't have enough of your own leaves (that's me!), steal them!  I've taken bagged leaves from people's back alleys and also from leaf drop locations (before the leaf drop signs were up so technically that's not stealing, right?)  I am even picky about the leaves I take - pre-chopped leaves are best (you can tell because the bag will be at least five times heavier than a bag of unchopped leaves), and also clear bags are preferable because you can see what's inside (you want nothing but leaves, and smaller, curly leaves such as birch and elm are better than big, flat leaves such as poplar because the big leaves get matted down and don't make as light and fluffy of a mulch as the smaller ones do.)

I'm currently saving bags of stolen leaves to gradually mulch the whole garden as the perennials die back, and I've filled one cubic-yard-sized compost bin as well.  I think I've "rescued" at least 30 bags!  My friends and family think I'm crazy...  Do you?

More reading:

There is also some good information posted at Fine Gardening on this topic:

Fall Leaves Make a Great Garden Mulch

Get an Early Start for your Spring Garden

Improve your soil by Raking Less

Comments

[Paula H]

While the rain made for a less than stellar summer, it was great for my leaf compost! All that rain plus lots of stirring meant that I has a good yard of compost this fall. Usually I find that it takes minimum of two years for the leaves to break down. I would probably "rescue" leaves too if I didn't have so many of my own!

[Janice Miller-Young]

Hi Paula,

Yes, I was very jealous of your leaf compost bin which is probably why I got greedy this year and took so many bags of leaves!  Wow, a whole yard of leaf compost!  Your garden will be so happy.  The bags I rescued last year worked well and the leaf mold is now spread around the base of my fruiting shrubs for a nice mulch.  Hooray for leaves!

Janice

[Michael Cornelia]

I took your advice last fall and spread most of my leaves among my gardens after I picked them up with my leaf mulcher. I didn't think it would make much of a difference toward the growth of my plants in my garden. I was shocked to see how well everything grew this spring and summer. Thank you so much for the advice!

[Calgary Garden Coach]

Thanks Michael, glad that you noticed such a difference!
Cheers,
Janice