3 Ways Fallen Leaves Can Improve Your Garden

Is their job done when they hit the ground—or is it just beginning?

Green leaves are the energy engine that fire our gardens . Without them there would be no blossom , no sugars for summertime tomatoes , and no cooling or oxygenating the air while acquire the mighty Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that give landscape painting a sense of time and permanency . A gardener ’s admiration of leaves can quickly evanesce , however , when faced with chocolate-brown leaf blanket everything from azalea to annual , and patios to pools . Leaves are suddenly a problem , something to manage — in other words , study .

But we all assume that gardening is an body process , and we know well the give and take , the labor and rewards of our chosen chase . While fall leaves may call for a chip of labor , one affair they are not is permissive waste . They do n’t fall back all their value when they hit the ground ; they just have a location trouble . There are welfare to be harvested from go down leaf . After all , you ’ve already got the rakehell in your script , so all it takes is a shift in perspective .

Many of us have long abandoned the bag and are wisely keeping our leaves close to base . If you ’re still attached to the feeling of accomplishment that comes when all the leave in your landscape painting are round off up , neatly bag , and lining the curb , now is the time to swap that for the gratification that comes from DIY leaf - cycling . Your landscape painting has a budget , and crepuscule leaves are garden currency . If you bag and drop , you ’re paying someone , through municipal wasteland fee , to haul that up-to-dateness off your land . Put this resource to use alternatively .

When , where , and how to use those leafage depends on the nature of the garden and the gardener . Three main uses exist : as mulch , as a leafage mold amendment for soil , and as a informant of C for home composting . You ’ve got options , so lease ’s dive in .

Bed company: leaves make good mulch

The many benefit of organic mulches are well documented : water keeping , filth temperature moderation , erosion control , weed suppression , and slow contribution to the constitutional matter of the soil . Look no further than the rude cycle of leaf drop in a woodland and you see mulch and leaf - cycling at body of work . If your garden is a woodland without lawn , hardscape , water features , or beds of annuals , then brush the leaf off your evergreen bush and you ’re done . If you ’ve get a wide-ranging landscape painting , though , you will need to run down or blow folio from those area and use them as mulch in others . Once you ’ve accumulate the folio , you have a pick : to hack or not to hack .

While chopping first will depict your farewell more versatile , you could save work by using whole leaves under trees or shrubs . Just take guardianship not to pile them on too thick — no more than 3 column inch . Leaves , especially those from oaks , have a waxy coating ; when pack down whole , they will prevent water system from visible light to moderate rains from reaching the soil directly underneath . You call for urine to make it to the territory before the water - hold qualities of mulch can kick in , so mulch whole leaves , but in moderation .

chop first is often worth the supernumerary effort , as it helps speed along decomposition and help water move more uniformly through the mulch . If you have a mower , you are in business organization . Pile leaves in run-in and run them over several times . Add the boxer for the last pass , or graze and mob the clay to be used where needed . Some gardener choose to use foliage blower with vacancy and shredding functions or a freestanding leaf chopper .

Chopped leaf mulch , 3 to 4 column inch thick , can go right to function in your bed . If you prefer the aspect of bark or pine needles , use 2 inches of chop leaves topped with 2 inch of your preferent cosmetic mulch . Chopped leaf are great for lining way in veggie gardens or pass around in a flimsy level on a summer - only veggie patch after remainder - of - season killing . twist them under in spring , or graze the surplus into paths if you are a no - till gardener . This modest amount of brown carbon wo n’t importantly affect the nitrogen balance , especially if you are fertilizing anyway , and the foliage mold that effect will add body of water - holding capacity and aeration to the dirt .

In my opinion , lawns and leaves do n’t immix . One round of cut down with the mulching vane ( sans purse ) when the leaf litter is tripping results in a nice dusting of chopped organic matter that will decompose readily . Any more than a dusting , though , can obstruct light and skilful melodic phrase circulation — two thing crucial to healthy turf . If you end up with heavy leaf surrender on lawn area , put on the bagger and get those leaves moved to a place where they can in reality add value .

Leaf mold is good for your soil

Green leaves contain various levels of nutrient , such as nitrogen , daystar , potassium , and calcium . Tree are smart , though , and they recycle at least 50 % of those mobile nutrients before dropping their leave-taking . What remains in dark-brown leaves in copiousness is carbon in the form of cellulose and lignin . Fungi , fortified by warmth and moisture , go to work breaking these down . The consequence is not traditional compost but a product call leaf mold — a phase of hoummos with amazing water - holding content , soil - loosen properties , and very small amount of nutrients . folio mold build healthy ground . It adds nip and tuck and friability , encourage the growth of organisms that aerate the soil , and total significantly more water supply - have capacity to colly than traditional compost .

If you find yourself with extra leafage after mulching , make foliage mold . Gathering leave soon after they fall , then hack and piling right on away , helps them keep on a bit of their remain nitrogen and speeds up the unconscious process of decomposition . Simply add chopped leave of absence to a 3 - metrical unit by 3 - understructure ( or big ) conducting wire cage or to a large pile in the woods , watering as you lend layers . Walk away and come back to leaf mould in one or two years ( two or three if you use whole leaves ) . If you are less patient and more paw - on , add water system in juiceless times , and turn the leaves once a season to attain solvent in a year . Work the ruined foliage mold into bed , or utilize it as a component of potting ground .

Compost needs leaves

Brown leaves are made of cellulose and carbon copy . If you are already composting kitchen scraps and other plant cloth , you know about strike the right residuum of “ leafy vegetable and browns”—nitrogen and carbon copy - rich fabric , respectively — to achieve maximal microbic action in your compost batch . chop fall foliage are an excellent and convenient brown constituent . Pile them in a telegram bin near your traditional compost bundle , then plunge in whenever you need to add a bed of Brown .

In the words of Don Boekelheide , one of my local garden heroes , “ Leaves are a marvelous resource , not ‘ trash ’ or ‘ waste . ’ Gardeners with even an iota of ecological cognisance should apply them to protect and build their soil . ”

I consider that gardens are artistic and productive expressions of nature — a nature that we are amply part and package of . This crepuscule , take your pool stick from seasonal cycles and give leaves their due : a foundational place in the garden where they will give back .

Leaves to watch out for

Are all Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree leave create equal when it comes to recycling ? Not quite . A few types are best left out of your mixed leaf mulch and used only beneath the trees from which they light . Black walnut leaves contain juglone , which leaches from leave of absence and nuts and may suppress sprouting or growth of other plants . Thick , waxy evergreen or prickly leaves , such as magnolia and holly , do n’t break down promptly ( also , ouch ! ) , so skip those in mixed mulch as well . You may have been told that oak leaves and pine needles acidulate the filth . inquiry does n’t support that call , however . The mulch itself may register acidic for a short period , but there is no change in the pH of the soil below . Use chop oak leaves or pine phonograph needle without concern .

A more controversial topic with conflicting scientific opinion is the use of diseased tree leaves in the landscape . My informed impression ( but still opinion ) is that using leaf containing insects or fungal disease in hot compost or a well - age leaf mold pile is not a trouble . The metre and change condition of temperature , wet , and pH will depict most eggs and spores inviable . If you have a serious problem with a harmful disease and not just a ornamental annoyance , bag those leaves and bump off them . ( Do n’t forget that I ’m just talking trees here . decidedly keep pay heed to pink wine and perennial by take away blackspot - ridden and rust - cover leaves . )

Oak folio . pic : Sergei Razvodovskij / dreamstime.com

Maple leaf . Photo : Zdenka Darula / dreamstime.com

When it comes to nutrients, leaves are leaves

While differences in nutritious levels in green leaves exist across species , these compositional differences become unimportant in chocolate-brown leaf . tree move or reuse many of their peregrine food before releasing their leaves , which levels the playing field across metal money . The volume of the imagination they are forget with is cellulose . Your maple leaves are just as useful for their carbon copy - rich organic matter as your neighbor ’s oak leave alone .

Paula Gross is the former assistant managing director of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Botanical Gardens .

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Photo: Maribeth Cordova/dreamstime.com

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Man mulching leaves with a lawn mower.

Chopped is better.A pass or two through a lawn mower (above) gives you a more versatile mulch—ready to break down but still able to hold in moisture and keep weeds down. Perennials have no problem pushing through a layer of leaves, even if they haven’t been through a lawn mower (below).Photo: Steve Aitken

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Perennial coming up through a blanket of fallen leaves.

Photo: Steve Aitken

person holding leaf mold in his hands

Look what I made!Leaf mold (above) happens anyway, but you can accept credit for taking advantage of this natural process. Leaves dropping and decaying is how soil is naturally replenished. Adding leaf mold back to the soil (below) completes the cycle. Your efforts expedite the process and focus the results around your plants.Photo: Virginia Small

person using a shovel to add leaf mold back into the soil

Photo: Virginia Small

A pile of leaves held by chicken wire, left to break down into leaf mold

The process isn’t always pretty.A pile of leaves left to break down into leaf mold or to be added to a compost pile is best tucked out of site. Occasional watering speeds the breakdown.Photo: Veryan Dale/Alamy Stock Photo

Black Walnut leaves.