Autumn Leaf Mulch 2022 Update
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Using Autumn Leaves as a mulch on your gardens and flowerbeds is a great way to naturally improve your soil and prevent weeds. In this update video, I document the progress of improving my garden soil in 2022. This is the soil building progress of 3 years of leaf mulch, starting from 1/4" of black topsoil, to now having 5-7" is great.
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It's always astounded me that people take this gift, encase it in plastic & pay to get rid of it. Worse is those who feel they MUST convert this into smoke & flying embers, like it's a right of autumn! Thanks for giving the leaves the credit they deserve!
I couldn't agree more with you Katie - leaves are just about the single best free resource for the garden.
Isn't it crazy? Our place is down a country road about a mile long and there is a designated garbage collection point where that road meets the main road, and all year round I am constantly finding big plastic sacks full of "weeds" piled up there, and this time of year of course, leaves. I am always fishing them out of the garbage and bringing them home like some crazy garbage bag man. I mean, this is literally going to go in LAND-FILL! It's insane to me that your trees spent a year producing all this fertility from the sun and from deep down in the soil, and you are going to remove it from your garden and bury it in plastic! I rescue it and tip it all out in my garden (the weeds I'll put in the compost usually), but now the neighbours have started to realise I want this stuff and are bringing it round to me, lol. One thing is that the leaves are often walnut leaves - there is this abiding concern that they are allelopathic and not good to have in the garden, so that's probably why they get thrown out, but like with most of these bits of "common wisdom" it's only partially true at best. I have been composting a bunch of walnut leaves for a year now, and hopefully by spring I am going to be able to plant something in them just to see once and for all whether there is any reason for concern.
And why burn something that just takes teh dark winter to decompose. so much unnecessary work
@@andreastyrberg7556 The only thing I can think is that people don't have room to compost or they think it's unsightly. Some of my neighbours tip all the leaves down the bottom of their garden (pine needles too) in a kind of common woodland area, and these piles have built up over literally DECADES, and I can go and fill up a wheelbarrow with aged leave or pine needle compost whenever I want, it's crazy (I've asked their permission, though it's not on their land anyway!)
It seems like our culture has a fetish for wrapping everything in plastic. We even wrap our plastic garbage in even more plastic. I think it's perverse and repulsive.
For years I quietly cursed my neighbor while I picked up 50-60 bags of leaves that fell from his trees into my driveway alone. The kids trick-or-treating at my house waded through six to eight inches of leaves on their way to my front door. They were so deep I used a snow shovel instead of a rake to round them up. Thanks to your video I realized what was once a problem is now a blessing. Thanks for sharing.
Great video!!! I'm a landscaper with a lot of perennial gardens. On trick I've used to install new gardens over lawn etc is to use clean cardboard. I get product dividers from pallets at Costco. While others use roundup, machinery, hard labor.... I make a sandwich (carbboard, leaves, mulch, manure, soil). I found you only need 3-4 inches on top of the cardboard. Then I plant divided perennials from other gardens on top. By spring they've rooted through the cardboard and the decomposing sod feeds it all summer. A fresh layer of quality mulch on top gives the bed a nice neat look as any other. The plants come in looking well established!! I think I'll try a veggie expansion the same way.
Hi - it sounds like you are doing it the right way! I always prefer a no chemical option when possible. I like your mulch sandwich method. I may have to try it sometime!
i love your metaphor: an open face biological sandwich. I'm going to steal that if you don't mind lol.
I was told to wrap the base of my zucchini plant with foil for several inches up, and then wrap tulle around that to keep the vine borers from laying their eggs. I did that this year and didn't have any borers on my plants.
I may have to try that next year Nana. I had read about that and was going to try it this year, but just got too busy.
I love these videos and really enjoy seeing the difference it’s made over the years. I started gathering my neighbors leaves last year and they were even bringing them over to me. I have a much smaller property in a more urban area but made some raised beds and started a backyard chicken flock.
That is awesome that they deliver them to you! I've got to load up the back of my car as much as I can.
I would love to do that but we have an invasive cat problem where I'm at. Ferals and supposedly cared for cats, but the owners let them outside, unmonitored, to play in traffic.
@@y0nd3r A few neighborhood cats came to our backyard and garden hunting moles. Big invasion we have this year.
@@smas3256 I don't have a mole problem and if I did, I would not use cats to take care of them as that is an ineffective solution. Cats are an invasive, introduced species that causes far more harm than good in our environment and need to be culled.
Years ago, I had a large foundation hole from a 5-bay garage on my property. I couldn't afford to have it filled, so I instead asked the local landscapers to dump their leaves in it. Two years later, I had a huge garden of the most beautiful soil imaginable. Only the section with a concentration of oak leaves was behind and uncomposted. The yield from that garden was stupendous, with vegetables and flowers growing throughout. Three houses later, I still miss that garden!
Wow - that would have been amazing
I have a big old oak. I like to shred the leaves with the mower set on two or one, to speed them along.
"They are called leaves, because you are supposed to leave em there!" One of my favorite quotes. Your garden looks great!
Thank you Tod!
If you leave them there they kill the grass.
@@A3Kr0n that’s the point! More food and pollinator flowers and less lawn. Grass has been entirely overrated in the past century. It serves absolutely no purpose. 😂😂
Grass hater gang 😁
If tilling them in creates a nitro sink, at what point could I till them in to incorporate them deeper into the soil?
Thanks for the update! Your 2019 video is what got me started with composting. I've been doing it ever since and, like you, I've watched my concrete-hard, garbage, dirt turn into rich fertile soil. I've refused to use any kind of commercial fertilizer to prove to those I know that the scare tactics we've seen about nitrogen and fertilizer shortages are nothing more than false cries of a manufactured potential food shortage because of it. You 100% DO NOT NEED commercial fertilizer, that's a total lie, and I would even go as far as saying that commercial fertilizer actually harms your soil long term. Though, admittedly, I don't have any proof of that, as it's my hypothesis for current research.
Thank you John - I'm really happy to hear you're having great results like I am. And I fully agree that it shows you don't need to use synthetic fertilizer. Although I don't think modern, giant commercial agriculture could do it. So you would need a system change to make it work.
One year I collected 140+ bags of leaves from my neighbors. That seemed a little obsessive, so now I do a more reasonable number, 100 or so. The results in my garden are stupendous, especially since in Texas we have "caliche," which looks a lot like road base. Few plants like it, and digging through it requires ingenuity and persistence.
Caliche...a jackhammer works too.
@@alfonsomunoz4424 You understand the problem.
600 bags here XD
@@meuhey You are a star. How is your garden?
@@kathrynmettelka7216 lush, building a food forest, I've been obsessively mulching with wood chips or leaves for 9 years now, I am in a cold climate though but yea the results are amazing lets hope our neighbors will keep bagging their leaves 😁
I started doing this after watching your videos. I had poor soil, not anymore. Thank you .👍🏻
Now this is the kind of comment I love to read! Excellent work Jon!
Done this for a few years now, another tip if you want to help speed up the leaf breakdown and make the nutrience accessible earlier is to cut some nettles, fill a bucket 3/4 full with water, place the nettles in the bucket and cover it for 2 weeks. It will smell stinky after this time but water the leaf mulch with it and you'll almost half the breakdown speed. I wouldn't water any winter greens with it just use it more as a winter feed for the bacteria to use up in the leaf breakdown over winter to release the nutrience in early spring. Keep going it's looking good, thanks for the vlog.
Thanks for the tip!
I’d like to ask if you could explain to me what nettle is and where could I get it? I basically live in the woods and leaves are a huge part of my spring and fall cleanup. Usually I just dump them into the surrounding woods but would like to start taking advantage of them for my beds. Thanks
@@miked8227 You can look up nettle online to be able to find it. The easiest way to find it is to be "stung" by stinging nettle! It's a brief stinging, then brief itching. It's very nutritious cooked up as a green (the stinging disappears with cooking), and has a huge variety of minerals when broken down by soaking in water. You can also just throw nettle into your leaf pile and it will compost along with the leaves, leaving its minerals for the garden where you use the compost.
I often tell people that ask how to improve their soil to ‘think of a forest floor’. Nature knows how to do things best. Sometimes it’s as simple as dumping heaps of leaves! Creating compost/nutrient rich soil, providing water retention, warmth/ cooling to roots when needed and many other good things!
You are a steward of your land, looking after it and making it productive/healthy. Well done!
Thank you! I could not agree more with what you said. Getting the soil fundamentals right, or should I say, giving it the right ingredients and time to work, has done wonders for my overall garden.
Leaf mulch is my favourite thing to use in the garden!
We moved in to our current property back in 2016, and both the front and back yards were almost entirely comprised of severely compacted and hydrophobic sandy soil that was so terrible even the weeds weren't willing to grow in it! Well, I only started gardening in 2020, but over the last 2 years I've managed to get the back yard into pretty decent shape by bringing in over 1500L of compost, broadforking the compacted sand, digging up all the limestone rocks, mixing the compost with our decompacted sand and using various nitrogen fixing cover crops as well as mulching using any organic matter I can get my hands on (winter grass, leaves, etc).
However since I recently ran out of room for planting out the back, I decided to clear the overgrown mess out front that hadn't been used since we first moved in back in 2016. To my absolute delight, and due to 6 years' worth of leaves, sticks and grass breaking down, the hydrophobic sandy soil that was there when we first moved in had been completely covered by a 10cm (4 inch) layer of humus! Since learning about the power of leaves I haven't used our 'green waste' bin for anything other than broken thorny branches that don't decompose for years.
Wow - that is a lot of compost! Sounds like you've done a great job improving your soil. I share the same philosophy on soil improvement - add organic matter any way you can. It really is the best way. Nice work!
I use thorny branches (cut in pieces of 15cm) from mezquites to keep dogs away of my front yard. It works but they decompose and I have to replace them every year, imagine if they were buried haha.
@@fenrirgg I was actually planning on doing something like that but using living 'deterrents' such as planting a bunch of bougainvillea and nettles at the front of my property, but local laws prohibit the placing/planting of things that 'potentially harmful' to the public or local animals.
Autumn 🍂 leaves falling in 2022
This needs to be seen by as many people as possible every update is just insane. Thank you for uploading.
Thank you for the kind words! I am happy you are enjoying the updates.
Great video - the improvement is so nice and visual from several angles: growth, soil colour, easily workable. It is just a win-win-win, and what a paradise it must be for the soil food web. Don't grow plants, grow soil! I go to a nearby football field every fall and sweep up leaves from there. People look at me as if im crazy, but they have not seen my garden :D
Thank you Jakob! I'm happy you enjoyed it. And I completely understand you getting all those leaves!
Grow soil, nicely said. In China the peasants are called those who grow soil 種地的lol. Now I understood why.
I’d suggest making one pile of leaves and watering it periodically if dry. This will generate intense heat (I use a compost thermometer) which will aid in decomposition. You can spread it out after a couple months. A rototiller might help move that black soil deeper to help the roots.
Thanks you for the suggestions. I actually like the 'natural weed barrier' of the leaves. So that is why I don't compost or till them. But, my soil is quite rocky, so tilling would be risky as I may very well damage the tines.
I think I'm going to try to replicate your process on a smaller scale. The results look great.
It has been working for me for several years in a row AC. I hope you have the same success I am.
I can't remember why I subscribed to your channel, but I did like this video. Very helpful and well documented.
Thank you Paul - I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you try it, I hope you have the same success I have had.
I think lawns need to be used for gardens instead of perfect lawns.
Don't ever use chemicals.
We use leaf compost & bark.
Been gardening over 50 years.
Just keep adding & it builds up to beautiful humus.
We have clay & rocks. It's been a battle.
Thank you for the encouragement.
God bless.
You are very welcome Sandra. I couldn't agree more.
Great video! I haven't tried the leaf mulch yet (other than just leaving the leaves from the trees), but I did try a chipdrop. This was super educational.
Thank you - I'm glad you found it helpful. The leaves have done wonders for my garden.
Nicely done on the continued progress reports!!! I live deep in the woods of northern Minnesota and leaves are a very bountiful resource. I’ve been composting them for the last five years but decided to directly apply a thick layer to my beds this year. I was curious about other peoples experience. Hands down your content is the best for presenting a case for leaf application! Thank you for sharing but also sticking with updates!!! I’ll be tuning in for more
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. I hope you get great results like I have. Good luck!
Thank you for continuing to show your research and progression. I dumped bags and bags of leaves in 1 area where I have berries growing. The results, my raspberry bushes grew to about 7 tall. I have already started filling my raised beds with fallen leaves. I’m excited to begin the collection process again. Thank you so much… very helpful!
You are very welcome Veronica - and I'm glad to hear you are having great success with your raspberries & leaves!
Beautiful. I have only two young trees, red oaks, but they dump ton of leaves so I built a compost bin for them last year. The bin was full last fall but now it’s only half fall and I’m getting ready to transfer the leave mulch to my raised beds and make space for new leaves.
Excellent Thomas - keep using those leaves!
That's the way to do it! Sounds like you got a nice simple system that will give you the stuff you need in your garden.
For even better results, shred the leaves and mix in nitrogen-rich material. Grass clippings work really well.
Another thing I did this year was a "deep mulch". I did a "cut and cover" with the leaves in two of my beds to get more leaf mulch down low into the ground. I started at one end of the bed and used a hoe to pull back the dirt. Then I put a "liberal" amount of leaves in the trench. I stomped it down good to get as much mulch in the trench. Then I turned around and used the dirt I first dug up to cover the leaves in the trench. That created a new trench and I filled/stomped it with leaves, and used the dirt in the direction I was going to cover that trench. I just keep going that way until I got to the end and brought in some compost from my pile to cover the last filled/stomped trench. That would work with your "hard soils" to break them up sooner and to get the compost action going down deep quicker.
That is a lot of work, but as you say, that should work very nicely to get instant 'good' soil.
I actually spread compost on my lawn in the most compacted, sun-beaten parts every Winter just to get some organic matter into the soils. Just top-dressing. Like with the leaf-mulch, it just seems to trickle down and get consumed by the grass. The excess grass clipping growth is then mulch mowed over time. Our ground is much softer to walk on in places I've done this.
Excellent video I have four giant oak trees on my quarter acre yard and that is a whole Lotta leaves to get rid of in a very small area this is exactly what I’m gonna do I’m kind of looking forward to them falling now
That's great Aaron - I hope you get the same results that I do!
Oak leaves do take longer to decompose. Shredding will help. 😁
Glad you have room to expand. I am out of spaces, haha. My favorite parts of using leaf mulch is that it is free and it suppresses weeds. After a hundred or so bags of leaves every year, our garden soil is very dark and easy to dig with a trowel.
The results are truly amazing - and it is so easy. It is shocking that more people don't do this.
Wow love the updates and your garden looks great. I started my garden with cardboard with 10 inches or more of woodchips. Then put the raised beds on top. In the raised beds every year I mulch my grass and leaves together and pile them on the raised beds. My soil also looks better every year. I use my leaves for everything as a filler. On the bottom of the new raised beds that I put in this year and in my flower pots. Gardens never seem big enough and us gardeners are always expanding because that's just what we do lol. Absolutely just love all your video's!!
Thank you Nora! Sounds like you've got a very productive garden! I expanded our garden by about 75% this weekend. I was able to put about 1/2" of compost on top. Now, I will wait for leaves!
I love that people get rid of grass clippings and leaves… it’s free soil improvement.. using grass clipping mulch I noticed so much improvements. Next year I’m gonna try this, and worm farming
Excellent - I believe you will be very happy with the results Jon!
Between you, and I am Organic Gardening, I learned how beneficial leaves are for the garden. It makes total sense given a forest floor, and how we can mimic that, and build our soil. I've been putting organic matter in different forms, on my gardens for decades, and I see the dark rich soil benefits every time. I have moved, so I started over 6 years ago where I am now. I have had problems with wood chips stunting growth for years after application, though they have their place, I'm done with wood chips. Last fall I applied approximately 1 foot of leaves over cardboard for my vegetable, and planned new pollinator garden in the fall. By spring I had a blank pallet to plant in. It's been such a great year for my new pollinator, and vegetable garden!!! I have beautiful dark rich soil in the vegetable garden where I've been stacking organic matter for 6 years now. And my new pollinator garden has a nice thin layer of dark soil. I'll be doing the same thing again this fall. I wish I could fast forward to spring, but there is so much to do between now and then. Thank you for your excellent content!!! You've helped me with so many things!
You are very welcome! I'm glad I could help you out, and it sounds like you are doing excellent work with all the information about leaves. I'm finding that as a general rule, I learn more by observing what naturally occurs, and what naturally grows rather than fighting nature or micromanaging a garden. It seems if you just get the 'big things' right, everything gets easier. And the biggest thing is to get organic matter into your soil.
I've had the same issue with wood chips. There can be no mixing into the soil at all. Only on top. I mixed once and couldn't grow much for years.
when layering wood chips on top of the soil, one must apply nitrogen fertilizer, because they consume nitrogen in the breakdown process.
I'm using wood chips in my backyard And keeping my fingers crossed a layer of cardboard helps. In the areas with less intense weeds just leaves are amazing!
Wood chips are good for a long horizon. For nearly 20 years, I had put various forms of bark mulch in the flower beds for weed control. I don't recall the first few years, but by the time I sold that house, you could plant *anything* in those flower beds and it would grow. I wouldn't recommend it for a vegetable garden...I'm really liking this leaf mulch idea.
Nice work! I'm using grass clippings and leaves to make compost. I have raised beds because I wanted to grow food THIS year lol. I have the same type of soil you do. I plan on keeping with the beds since drainage is always such a problem with clay soil. But it is amazing to see how cool nature is. I also have neighbors who are cool with me taking their leaves every year. I have to get on that. Need to make all the nice bins out of hardware cloth.
Cool - I understand wanted the production you can get from raised beds. The real test for leaf mulch for me will come next year. I've expanded our garden, and am now looking at bare soil under my lawn. I have flipped the sod pads, so there will be a thin layer of composted grass. But other than that, I'm spreading a layer of compost, and then will apply as many leaves as I can.
I’ve been collecting leaves from around the hood. Is it weird that I find it refreshing and fun? It’s killing me knowing that There are still big piles of leaves out there that I couldn’t get to. Tomorrow the city comes and steals them
Hi Louise - I kind of feel like I'm foraging a public resource, and nobody has a clue how valuable they are!
Your channel is really excellent. Packed full of concise information. Love the documentation. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Ward! I'm glad you are enjoying my videos.
Thank you for your videos. I have learned a lot. Now to apply it to my very poor clay soil . I am finally hopeful that I can have a garden! I really appreciate how you explain things.
Thank you for the kind words Fayito - hopefully you can have the same success as I have. Good luck!
This is my fourth year doing a leaf mulcher garden. It’s basically gardening in a compost pile that I never turn or mix in. I can chop and drop all the plants in the fall and then just cover with a foot of leaves in late October.
EXACTLY! That is basically what I do too.
One year I collected 140+ bags of leaves from my neighbors. That seemed a little obsessive, so now I do a more reasonable number, 100 or so. The results in my garden are stupendous, especially since in Texas we have "caliche," which looks a lot like road base. Few plants like it, and digging through it requires ingenuity and persistence.
Hi Kathryn - I would go back to 140! I've not seen 'caliche' soil, but can imagine how tough it is from your description. Adding organic matter is the way!
My house had been a rental property for over 30 years and nobody amended the soil. When I dug my first garden, I used a chisel and hammer to break up the soil. Three years later, the soil is much healthier and softer due to leaves. Thanks for your video - I wish more people would save and use their leaves.
Wow Christina a chisel? Dang. Well, it is nice to hear that you have improved so much using what nature can provide. Happy gardening!
@@growitbuildit Ha Ha! Yes. I thought it was concrete at first. Just compacted clay-based soil.
Re: squash vine borers. I saw a you tube vid where a gardener painted the base vines of her plants with a thick slurry of non-toxic school glue, a bit of water & sawdust which formed a prottective shell...but still allowed the vine to expand as it grew. No tedious wrapping of vine stems with foil ot self-sticking atheletic tape. She dabbed the glue/sawdust on with a sponge brush.
Has anyone else tried this?
That sounds like an interesting idea. Enough of a barrier to dissuade the pest.
I do the same but put landscape fabric over the leaves during the winter. It seems to keep the leaves in place, help retain moisture, allows rain to get through, and prevents any winter weeds, etc.
I also chop the leaves up with the lawnmower before putting them on the bed.
I've found that the leaves tend to stay in place for me. But, they are bagged, which probably helps them stay interlocked better.
I offered my 12 year old grandson a buck a bag for leaves this fall and he jumped on it ! It’ll be interesting to see how many he can come up with. 🤔
That is a great idea Jon. He earns a little money doing work......and you get the leaves
Neat to see the changes across multiple years!
I agree - I just wish I had taken better pictures when I started. It is actually difficult to get good pictures of soil depth unless you dig decent sized holes.
Based on your experience, would you shred the leaves when you apply them in the fall, or would spread them out and not do anything with them?
Hi Stephanie - the first year I just spread them out 6" deep. The second year I mowed/shredded them. Last year (2021/2022) I just spread them out. Based on my experience, shredding is not necessary to get good results. It will accelerate them decomposing, but once they break down weed seeds will start to generate more easily. Based on this experience, I will no longer mow them up.
I use leaf as my carbon source when composting with horse manure and it creates a blue ribbon compost! This year I am adding leaf as my mulch around the Bell Bean cover crop. I live in a new Sacramento development without any tree's so I have to visit older area's and harvest leaf. Leaf is totally ignored so I get as much as I want!
Nice! Always great when you can score a ton of leaves for free.
Natures mulch. I’m worried about rats making a nest in the leaf litter as it’ll make the ideal conditions for warmth. Even though I don’t want rats I couldn’t bare to trap them
Hi Lee - I have no rats, but I haven't found any mice nests in mine.
Instead of a thin layer over the whole area, cover a smaller part of it with a 2-3 inch layer. The next year, do another section with an adequate layer.
The thin layers don't have enough bulk to do much.
I do about 12 inches of un-compacted leaves over the whole thing. It seems to work really well.
You do not shred the leaves at all? How do you prevent them from matting out?
Hi Nyurr - I have shredded them before, but I find that it isn't necessary. I get a natural weed barrier, and the roots of my plants seem to love the decomposing matter.
Wow! Thanks for this video. I’m going to add a bunch of leaves to my garden area! I also have a compost pile to add some in. Looks like there’s hope for my soil yet after seeing yours.
Excellent - I bet you will have great results just as I have. Good luck!
When we bought out house we had to use synthetic fertilizer just to keep plants looking ok. Got to a point where we stopped planting. One fall, so uninspired to be gardening, I got lazy and piled up all the leaves into an empty garden bed, 2 years later I noticed how good the soil looked and started to plant a few, and now I have a lush garden and I don't have to bag leaves. I just mow over the leaves with the clipping collector.
Exactly!
Yessss I got a leaf mulcher last year and I love it. It is amazing. Makes your yard smell like a forest and quickly turns into rich topsoil. So glad to see you spreading this wisdom!
It is the best thing for soil that I've found Bull!
God gave us everything we need.. we just dont know
Very true!
We use hot sauce and Vaseline to kill squash vine borer. Works perfect and takes less time.
I may have to try that - thank you for the tip
Joe, are you able to grow carrots, lettuce and other small seeded crops in the area with decomposed leaf mulch? Do you need to plant those in compost?
Hi Laura, I have not tried carrots, but have grown lettuce seeded in compost (it is visible in that section). The plant that has been giving me fits is beets. I've had very spotty germination, and then poor growth. But everything else has thrived.
The "black stuff" in your top layer isn't soil, it's pure compost, pure organic leaf matter decomposed. You seem to be growing plants in pure compost. Actual soil also has inorganic matter like tiny sand/rock/clay particles that give it more structure and drainage. It works best if you mix compost into actual soil after it's done decomposing, otherwise the bacteria that are doing the decomposing also compete with any nearby growing plants for nitrogen. I think you would get even better results if you mixed in a substantial serving of grass clippings or other "green" material with your leaves. Leaves are heavy on Carbon, so the green matter would give you a Nitrogen boost, and then it's be great if you blended that composted material into the actual soil after it's done composting separately. Before I had trees of my own, people were looking at me very strangely when I drove to the nearby college campus and scooped up bags of leaves and loaded them into my Honda Accord. I needed some leaves to balance out all the grass clippings I had.
I wish we could do that, we have only red oak leaves. We rangle them into rabbit wire rings and layer grass clippings. it takes about 4-6 months to get some nice leave mould. In that time the rain and wee critters have broken the leaves down and the ph has come up some, so we cover our beds and meadows with a 1-2 inch layer every year. seems to do the trick.
Hi Tracy - in my experience, if you've got a system that works, keep doing it. Oak leaves are notorious for taking long to break down.
Great video! Fortunately I already started and have several neighbors lined up to collect leaves from. I too am laying a thin compost layer. Thanks.
Excellent - good luck E.D. That is great you already got some leaves lined up from your neighbors.
Rats, I thought I clicked on Harry's paint drying update. My bad.
go even bigger - you are basically hardly even trying with this - 2-4" of good soil could be 1-2 feet and you would see even better results - composting is lazy - you don't have to do much just collect it all and monitor temps and rotate occasionally - with bigger piles you can maintain good temps through winter and gain more great product
Your videos are awesome. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. My husband following your instructions last Fall in our vegetable garden and in only one year, the soil has improved tremendously. Thank you for the 2022 update too. You suggestions are wonderful; it's amazing how working with Mother Nature can far exceed any manmade things.
Thank you so much for the kind words Lisa! I'm very happy you enjoy how I make my videos, and even better to hear that you are having great results as I have! Keep up the good work, and thank you again!
Thanks very much for this information. Appreciate your tremendous effort to put this together.👍
Thank you Norman! It does take quite a bit of filming! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
cool video and channel. subscribed.
Thank you CB!
This is kind of on topic to leaves re: woodchips. I've heard you shouldn't plant annuals in them but perrenials are okay, no idea if this is true and it obviously doesn't apply to leaves
This is an excellent video! I will be committed this year to adding my leaves to the garden as mulch! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you Mama Louise - and good luck getting as many leaves as you can!
Im seeing some nitrogen deficiencies on your plants. Would be logical , seeing as leaves dont add that much nitrogen to a compost.
Just pee int the soil your plants are in, or collect your urine and dilute it with the water you use.
Without seeing other videos... You could try woodchips for the walkways... They last longer and are still beneficial. Also, planting herbs, especially stronger smelling hers, inter mixed or nearby, can deter ALOT of common pests. It makes it harder for them to identify the plants they are looking for. Check out poly culture or interplanting.
Thank you Sheri - I will look into that.
Trying this method this year to deter deer around my woody shrubs and saplings they keep over”pruning”… while I like the help and glad they are getting nutrients my plants are unable to get the benefits of the sun since they never have leaves… my HOA doesn’t allow fences and I don’t like using chemicals as a first resort, so I need to be creative.
@@cynthiabonnes9717 I also would plant a deer garden of all their favorites further away from MY garden with leftover seeds... If you have the space...
@@sherimatukonis6016 unfortunately most of what I’ve planted are their favorites. Even the plants that are resistant. Foliage is that poor here. Everything is inedible to them otherwise. Very sad.
YES! By all means, mulch your garden with leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper. These are free organic resources that most folks want hauled away. Like you, I started out gardening in clay soil, but I continuously mulched throughout the growing season and through the fall. Over 19 years, I went from having no topsoil to having 8" throughout the garden. I even built two large leaf bins so I could stockpile excess fall leaves and used many of them to make more compost. Weed suppression and an increase in worm populations is of great benefit to the gardener. Good job - keep it up! :)
Thank you Brian! That is inspiring to hear your results.
Adding some alcaline stuff like calcium or smth would be nice.
You should have turned the bed in the spring.
And get to the point quicker.
This is the first video of yours I am seeing, so it's possible my question is already addressed elsewhere. In case not, what are your thoughts about till/no-till? Your soil has very clearly been improved over the years. Congratulations on that. I wonder if maybe still even now some disturbance would increase your topsoil depth significantly more and also at what point does the no-till really enter the picture on a place like yours.
Hi Zachary - I never tilled leaves in because my soil is actually quite rocky. I've pulled out enough rock to make several fire pits. For that reason I did not till, as I was afraid I would break tines.
But as it has gone, I will keep leaving it as a mulch. The depth of black soil keeps improving, and I absolutely love the benefit of no to minimal weeding during the growing season.
ALL of our squash plants were destroyed by the vine borers this year! After some research, we bought a locally grown Butternut squash (delicious!) to harvest seeds from and will also buy seeds for Tromboncino to grow next year (Rareseeds sells it as Zucchino Rampicante). The vine borers have a much harder time with these two varieties of squash
Thanks for the tip - I may have to try those. I always try to grow some on the woods edge, and sometimes am successful. But those varieties would probably be much better.
I just discovered your videos today & really enjoy them! Do you feel it's necessary to shred oak leaves before topping my veggie garden with them? Thank You!
Hi Sharon - shredding them will help them break down faster. And Oak leaves generally take a long time to decompose, so it could be a good idea. But they will break down none the less. The primary species of leaf I use is Maple, which obviously have no problem breaking down.
Great video. Question -- By the time spring came, did you notice any difference between using shredded leaves and non-shredded leaves in the fall? TIA
Hi Cate - I really didn't notice too much of a difference. It was easier to move non-mowed leaf mulch in Spring for planting seedlings though.
Excellent video! Thank you for it.
Question:
1. Have you looked into Johnson-Su Bio Reactors? There several different variations, and they all achieve pretty much the same outcome.'
2. Have you looked into any KNF or JADAM methods? Specifically the IMO stuff, and also the OHN, JLF and FAA. Give the stuff a dig into, it's valuable knowledge, and I think it would be right up your alley.
Hi Matt - I must say that I have not heard of the methods in either question. I may have to research some of them this Winter, as a cursory glance it looks very interesting.
I spent hours tilling my garden this year. It's about 7'x75'. The spot hasn't been used in at least 10-15 years so it was extremely difficult and I had to go over it several times. Luckily, I had help. I'm excited to start this process in the fall so I don't have to break my back. Thanks for this awesome info!
You are very welcome! This really is the single best thing I've done to my soil.
man, im always looking for "gold" picking up 19 bags of oak leaves tomorrow. good stuff. Thanks x the video indeed. Have a great year everybody.
It really is like gold for our soil. Thank you for the kind words - and good luck!
Yep. Good stuff. 🙂 Your 'black gold' soil looks gorgeous! It's really helpful that you've recorded three whole years' improvements, rather than just presented a one-off video.
I was wondering: does the gradual breakdown of all that 'brown' (carbon) have any noticeable impact - temporarily - on reducing the nitrogen level in the new soil? The leaves attract earthworms, who do a wonderful job, but would the maturing process happen more quickly if some extra 'green' (nitrogen) such as grass clippings, coffee grounds or urine were also applied?🤔
Admittedly, time's not an issue for many gardeners, but I'm based in the cold, wet, gloomy north of England where the sun rarely shines and the growing season can last anything up to two weeks [joke]. I need my compost to be ready by yesterday!
So... when I collect autumn leaves, I always add plenty of nitrogen to balance and accelerate the breakdown.
Have you noticed any imbalance in the new soil's fertility by adopting the relaxed just-let-it-happen approach? Of course, nature sorts everything out eventually, and your fine veggie crop results speak for themselves, but I'm curious whether the composting process might not happen faster with a dose of nitrogen.
I don't have a lawn, so adding cut grass is not an option for me, but I've found that a one-off application of a (UK-sized) gallon of 'pee' per cubic [sic] yard works wonders when composting leaves, especially if they're intact and not partially shredded by a lawnmower beforehand.
Hi Elli - first, let me preface my reply by stating I have never tested my soils fertility, so I cannot say how it has effected my soil's nitrogen levels. When I say my plants grow much better with the leaf mulch, it is strictly based on observation. But I'm not embellishing at all...all of my plants produced tons more fruit, were taller and much fuller than years past. The only real change I made was a thick layer of leaf mulch.
But from what I have researched regarding leaves and their decomposition, is that absent green materials, it is fungi, mitochondria, small insects, and worms that will do the bulk of the decomposition - not bacteria. None of these decomposers rely on Nitrogen. I know that us gardeners always first think of composting as natures way of decomposing things, but fungi do a lot of work on their own (rotting wood, for example).
If the leaves truly robbed my soil of nitrogen, I would expect to have much shorter plants, but I do not. So, based on all my observations and readings, it certainly appears that it is insect/fungi decomposition. There may be other concerns in a wet area like yours though, as it could make a great environment for slugs. I have found slugs in my leaves, but they've never been a problem on my plants. That could be because the top surface is generally dry in Summer, as well as my plant leaves, which is an inhospitable environment for them.
If you are unsure of what to do, perhaps try a portion of your garden with leaf mulch and observe. As long as slugs aren't an issue, you will likely have similar results as I have. If slugs are an issue, you will probably be able to remove the mulch before they decimate anything and just compost it or make leaf mold.
Wow, stumbled upon your black walnut seeds video.....I hate that we moved back to US and suburbs. But, trying to compost and pretend I'm living off the land!
Hi Otto - I'm with you. I live in suburbia but adjacent to a forest. So, I do my best to 'bring nature home".
Thank you!! I have been collecting leaves too but did not know why but it was a 'feeling' of some sort. Its bought about criticism, unwelcome comments, interference, downright bad ill will and hate from neighbours so i switched to 3 am - 4:30 in the morning just to avoid them. My friend has given me some type of bean, I think its called 'field beans, (he swears by them and their roots will burrow down deep) to plant but I didn't know what the effect would be on the incoming pants in the actual clay clogged up growing area I will be using for crops. Now I know what to do. Plant them in the leaves I have collected, but with a thin layer of good soil. I should have a good amount this night fall to finish the collection. The temperature in England, United Kingdom is riding at -3 degree Celsius. Not funny. All things being equal, by May 2023 after I have used 'Vitax clay breaker' in Jan 2023 on the intended growing area and rotavated in this leaf & bean/worm 'compost'/mulch in, in March...one would think the horror of clay soil will end. I refuse to 'mock up' a clay God and pray to it. So the plan on the actual growing area is to spread 'Vitax clay breaker' at the end of Dec 2022 and then another 10 kg tub in late January 2023 and rotovate the 2nd tub 'in'.
I'm not familiar with vitax clay breaker, but leaves will definitely improve it. Keep getting them no matter what anyone says
This makes me want to go drive around looking for leaves
Hahaha - I do that this time of year. Or rather, I'm on the look out when I go places.
Great update, thank you. Leaves are quickly becoming my favorite mulching medium.
Thank you - glad you found it helpful. I agree with regards to leaves.
Love the style of your videos. As a new gardener, I'm learning a lot, thanks! I add so many leaves to my compost pile. Another thing to consider is all that excess cardboard we get in our lives. I have a 55 gallon can full of shredded cardboard (using a large paper shredder) and that's been monumental in helping to balance my compost nitrogen with carbon when leaves are lacking. I wonder if such shredded cardboard would work to layer on the garden..?
Hi Lenny - I'm glad you are enjoying my videos. Shredded cardboard can be used on the garden. Just make sure it is plain brown cardboard (black ink is ok, colored ink will have heavy metals in trace amounts). But the thing to consider is that the cardboard will become hydrophobic and shed water. But it is used as mulch on some farms and gardens.
Have you experimented with wood chips too?...maybe in conjunction with leaves? I've used 20+ yards of wood chips over these last four years in establishing several more native flower and shrub beds with good success. I did use them in my garden too, and did not till them in...cuz that'd sap much-neeeded nitrogen. But I'll likely add lots of leaves to my garden this fall, in part thanks your input here. So thankyou, and good luck in 2023
I did collect a bunch of leaves last season but did not use them straight away like you did. My soil isn't too bad, though I have a fair bit of clay. And any organic amendments can only help. I am careful not to source leaves from neighboring properties who have lawn services that apply fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides.
Hi ziptie - I have not really used wood chips. I never signed up for chip drop, but just sort of fell into getting leaves. I've loved the results, and at the moment I see no reason to change anything. But, hopefully you get good results with leaves that same as I have. Good luck to you next year!
Wow !!!
I did exactly what you said about building a compost mound out of lawn clippings & undyed bark mulch from HDepot & potting soil & water & layering it & wetting it AND NOW 24 HRS LATER IT IS OVEN HOT !!!
It is so hot that I couldn't leave my hand stuck in it.
YOU ARE THE BOSS !!!
THANK YOU !!!
Congrats and keep her going. Turn n feed it regularly. The mulch may take a bit longer to decompose
@@growitbuildit ?Turn it daily?
Every 2 days?
Every 3 days?
Weekly?
Compost, when made with grass clippings should be turned every 24 to 48 hrs , until your pitch fork meets no resistance and you can turn the whole pile with a light consistency. Grass clippings rapidly decompose, and will turn into a mat. When this happens all the air is squeezed out and it turns to sludge. Frequent turning keeps it aerated and hot
Once it turns easily, just turn it weekly
@@growitbuildit ok thanks. Thursdays will be my Turn-it Day !!
Excellent video still learning about composting !!!!! Extremely informative helped me out alot.
Thank you Carla - I'm very happy you found it helpful. Good luck!
I love keeping my leaves on my property. I mow them off the grass into my bagger, then dump them in the garden or use them in compost piles. It still makes me laugh that last year one of my neighbors saw me doing this and went out and bought the biggest, most obnoxious back pack style leaf blower he could, and had his son take video of him clearing the leaves from his property. Like he was showing me how it's done.
I've had really bad soil on my property since I moved in a decade ago. Grass was dying, then rain was washing away whatever top soil there was. I've completely arrested the erosion, and started turning the health of the soil around. All with the help of nature's autumn gift.
That is funny - you should ask him to blow them into your yard! There is one guy in my neighborhood with one of those backpack blowers. He also creates mulch volcanos. In fact he lost one of his trees to that, and then replanted a new one with another mulch volcano. I feel bad for him - keeping up with the jones costs him unnecessary time and money.
But it sounds like you've done great work at your home Clang - keep it up!
Thank you for this video! I'm starting this technique this year (right now). I didn't have a garden last year because the year before I felt like I was just feeding deer 😮 This spring we put up a fence and i was back at it. In the one year that I didn't garden my soil went from bad to worse. I compost but it was never enough. I dig my beds by hand and as much as I hate to admit it I'm getting too old for that s@#$! So I dug my beds (hopefully for the last time!), added about an inch of compost and now I'm covering them with as many leaves as I can rake. I also added seaweed to some beds as I live on the coast in Maine. My goal is to source everything from our property. Aside from the seeds of course. Although I did have some green beans go by so I let them go to seed. I am curious to see how I will plant seed rows but improving the soil is top priority! Thank you for giving me hope for next year!
The fence, even a small one can do wonders to dissuade them. Somehow they are staying out of my garden even though it is only 4' tall. But the compost and leaves will do wonders for you, making it easy to dig. Good luck next year. Oh yeah - and I've found that you will NEVER have enough compost!
I’ll be curious to how my project works out. Been taking pictures during so that I can see what spring looks like.
We had to relocate our septic unit and that in return made us have to relocate our garden. We took the easy route and took a tractor and tiller to it for the first year (this year). It was still kind of wet/moist and it didn’t look too terrible at the time.
It wasn’t until it dried that we realized it’s pretty much straight up clay. Soooo, what we had planted I let grow the best it could, harvest what was there and called that good enough.
So my project so far has been digging out rectangles (roughly 15 foot long by 3-4 foot wide) of the clay and pitching the clay to the side.
Thick layer of leaves, pine needles, veggie/food scraps and various plants/flowers people have given me they were gonna throw away. Add a thin/medium layer of clay. Then back to the other material. Then clay. And blah blah blah lol.
I’ve got two “rectangles” dug out and completed so far. Ive dug out them down as far as my shovel head which I’m guessing is about 9”-10” or so.
It’s been quite the chore to dig out, BUT I’m hoping with the amount of composting materials I’ve put in there that it will make a world of difference.
I'm betting that you are going to have amazing soil where you are doing the trench composting. And it will likely be ready for Spring planting too.
Where on earth are you? From your accent it sounds like USA. What kind of leaves are those? They look like oak. I live in a suburb of Minneapolis and have been composting for years. I’ve never tried your method. I have seven large oak trees on my 1/3 acre property so I have many many leaves in the fall. I mix them with grass clippings from mowing and kitchen scraps in two large compost bins. I spread these over my two 16 x 5 veggie raised gardens every fall. It’s a lot of work chopping the leaves in my bagging lawn mower and leaf chopper and stirring the piles regularly, although the resulting compost is beautiful. I’m going to use bare leaves along with the compost this time like you did here, or use the compost on my lawn instead. Thanks for the ideas and inspiration! Good luck.
I'm in Southern Pennsylvania, and the primary leaves I use are Maple. Oak leaves would work too, but they will take longer to break down, but they will decompose nonetheless. For me, it is all about getting organic matter on top of my soil, and letting nature do the work. The benefits of not weeding my garden are awesome too.
And thank you for the kind words, and good luck!
I have a Billy goat Leaf Vac n I've been sucking up leaves every day that it hasn't rained. I'm also gonna get my neighbors leaves to.... I grow potatoes in my leaves , BUT plan on covering my whole garden in leaves this year. Ck out Randy Smalley's page, he also deep mulch gardens...
I'll have a look - thanks for the tip
I bet diatomaceous earth would kill the squash pests...and I would NEVER get rid of my leaf mulch or grass clippings for that matter. In a matter of months I have already changed my red clay into a "productive" soil using my leaves and grass.
Hi Andi - diatomaceous earth might do the trick on squash bugs. But the squash vine borer is a moth that lays eggs on the stem. Then the larvae bores right inside and eats it's way up the stem. And I believe it is the vine borer that has been causing all the trouble.
So this may be a dumb question, but what the hell. I know about the benefits of leaves, composting, mulching etc. All ours go into the compost (if I'm feeling froggy enough to rake em)
I totally dig ...no pun intended, your fenced in layout. I can absolutely see how the mulching would be very effective. But our garden is completely open, and in an area that gets decent wind.
Anyone got suggestions on how you could make that work?
Right now I'm thinking either cardboarding over, or getting a blower/leaf mulcher.
The latter would be pricier, but I think more feasible.
The former would fit with my current project topping the garden w immature compost we can get here for free, and letting it sit for the next season.
All my leaves are coming out of bags, which seems to 'crush' them up or allow them to interlock. Once my mulch gets somewhat level, the leaves stay put. And when you look at my garden in Spring, all the leaves are where they were in November. They don't blow over to one side.
I would try to water them when spreading them out, then run a wheelbarrow or walk over them a lot. If you had a riding mower, just drive right over them without engaging the blade. But once they seem crushed up and interlocked, they seem to stay put.
According to the eco liberals you would be increasing the co2 with the decomposition (lol). Of course what do they know. I just mulch the leaves. My grandmother had 3 large concrete bins for mulching including tossing coffee grounds, banana peels, etc. The 3rd bin was the final product.
It's all going to decompose sooner or later, I'm just increasing the speed. Your Grandma was wise, multi bin or multi pile composting is the way to be
I have a question for you! I'm expanding my garden from a raised bed to my yard. Before I start laying my leaves, should I take the grass out from my future plot? Would it be more beneficial for me, come Spring?
Hi Kenzie - A thick enough layer of leaves should smother it all. But to be absolutely sure, the absolute best way to go about this would be to get some cardboard. Then, mow the grass low like a golf course putting green. Then, place your cardboard on top, water it, and then put leaves on top of that. That is the easiest way to ensure no grass will grow through, and you will begin improving the soil straight away. Just use regular brown cardboard plain, or with black ink. See here - ua-cam.com/video/YzIlN1ukoNo/v-deo.html
I'm expanding my garden too, and I flipped over sod pads as I didn't have enough cardboard/leaves ready. But, two weeks later and the grass is starting to grow back through the sod pads. Flipping sod pads is hard work, much harder than cardboard smothering. But I will spread a lot of leaves on top, and it will all be good.
What about using the leaf mulch on perennials? I have a strawberry patch that grows stronger every year and it is fun to watch it expand every year. Unfortunately, with that comes weeds 😞 Should I just place the leaf mulch around the strawberries & cross my fingers?
It would be worth a shot Jolyn. You could simply put 3" or so to see how it does. Or do 6" in the fall, and just place some stakes where you know plants are located. Then you can simply check in the Spring to see if it can push through.
I have had similar experience with leaf mulch, and like to believe that worms and castings are responsible for the soil improvement below the actual mulch level....anymore, I hate to even stick a fork in the ground for fear of killing one of my little gardeners. Been mulching since 2018...also using horse manure and wood ash to amend the soil.
You could very well be right that the worms do the majority of the work. I'm not sure, but I just like the results!
Great job! I believe soil is about 90% of successful gardening and you proved/showed that!
Thank you Thom! What is amazing is that I've transformed mine for basically no money!
I use the abundance of leaves on my property for mulch etc. I use them to make compost, it is free. I have enjoyed your video and have subscribed.
Making compost is an excellent way to use them. I just really like the natural weed barrier! But thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
For reasons I won't get into, I won't be gardening much for the next 3-4 years but starting last fall, I'm adding leaves mulched with my push mower from my yard and my next door neighbors. I intend to keep doing this in an effort to improve the soil and for weed control. Even when I begin gardening again in earnest, I'll add as much leaf mulch as I can each fall.
The results will speak for themselves, thank you for doing that. And hope you can restart gardening sooner. Good luck!
I’ve been adding ground leaves to my garden beds for many years. I get the leaves for free from my neighbors using my DR leaf vac and mower. I plant peas and beans just by scraping a 4” wide path clean of leaves and slightly furrowing with a push plow. I then cover with the mulch and what soil was furrowed. I have had good results. I also us 3 gallon pots with the bottom cut out to help plant reach the soil. Also, I find that you need to add N2 to account for all the composting that is going on in the soil. Nice video. Greg
Thank you Greg - I may just try your method of seed planting if it has been working well for you.
Ive been blowing my leaves from my suburban cookie cutter to the curb for the town to pick up for years. This year I was doing leaf mould. So far 7 plastic bags full with holes for drainage. i also topped off my compost cage.
my reading says leaf mould for fungal benefit and compost for bacterial benefit. Which do you think is better?
I think both are equally awesome. Leaf mold will take time, but the result is excellent. Compost I can make pretty quickly.
One thing to add here on leaves. I watched a video where a guy used a number of different organics to winterize his plants. Straw on some, Pine Needles on others and several other things. During Winter he placed a Probe Thermometer in each of the different Mulches. The plant roots covered in Leaves had the warmest temperature. Good to know, because I always used straw living on a farm.
Interesting - I usually can get lots of leaves from my neighbor with the large Sugar Maples. I guess that works out for me keeping my plants warmer into the Fall.