In the Garden: How to Make Leaf Mould

image via Self Sufficient UK

While today is actually the first day of winter (boo!) the majority of deciduous trees around us have still yet to lose all their leaves, which means two things: Mess and the opportunity to make leaf mould.

Sounds Gross. What is it?

It's basically the term used for rotted down autumn leaves. The gardening nerd in me knows that this stuff is beeeyootiful for your garden - it can be used as a soil conditioner (to improve the overall health of your soil) or as a gentle, rich mulch to help retain water and keep weeds at bay, and gardeners often refer to it as "precious gold". It's perfect for ferns and rainforest plants in particular, but will help enrich any soil in your garden by improving the water retention and overall health of the garden.

How do I Make it?

Super simple. Just rake up all your fallen leaves and give them a spray with the garden hose. You want them to be fairly wet, to help speed up the decomposition. Then fill some heavy-duty black plastic bin bags with your leaves, adding a handful of blood and bone every 30cm or so (this appears to be optional, but I trust the word of Gardening Australia!) Close your bags up, poke some holes in it with a garden fork and leave in a sheltered place, preferably on soil/grass, for at least a year.

So, this isn't an activity for those who are after instant gratification, but it is worthwhile. If nothing else, it gets me outside in the chilly winter air for a while, and gives me something for my garden for basically no cost.

How do I Know When it's Ready?

It will be crumbly and sweet-smelling, and resemble the look of regular compost. (Just a side note: you can't add many autumn leaves to your regular compost bin, as they don't easily break down in those conditions. Too many and it will slow your pile down.)

Sounds Good. Any Tips?

If you want the process to go a little quicker, try dumping all your leaves on the lawn and mowing over them. This will break them up, meaning they'll break down quicker. Also, there are special leaf mould compost bins available, which compress the leaves, apparently speeding the process up some more, so perhaps try keeping a weight of some sort on top of your pile. Maybe some timber or corrugated iron would do the trick.

So, if this ridiculous sinus infection goes away some time soon, this is what I plan on doing over the weekend. And, funnily enough, it makes me not dislike winter quite so much!

Project Compost: Thought I Should Add...

Common Weeds by SParadigm

The method of composting that I use, as outlined here and here, will leave you with volunteer plants. The heat generated in the bins isn't generally sufficient to kill off seeds that may be added to your compost bin, so be prepared for lots of tomato seedlings popping up in the warmer months. Not such a biggie for me, but for others maybe.

Also, that means I can't or don't compost weeds that have gone to seed or are in flower. Otherwise I spread the little buggers all over the garden. Yes, this isn't ideal but there's time issues at play. And I have limited time to deal with my compost bins. So the weeds get binned at this point. But I'm thinking of going the worm farm route soon, so maybe our slippery friends can munch on the weeds? I don't know. Will have to find out.

Project Compost: Do's and Don'ts

Because a photo of compost is boring. Huge earthworm found here.

In follow-up to last week's post on restarting the compost bins, I've put together a list of compost do's and don'ts that may make the whole process a little easier.

Again, I am no composting expert and much of what I say is probably quite unscientific, but it is a record of things that have/have not worked for us.

DO:

• compost most vegie scraps, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds
• take a sniff of your bins occasionally - there should not be a rotten smell at all. if there is, the heap may be too wet or you may need to add some dry hay/garden waste to the bin
• look out for insects in your pile - a good pile is squirming with worms and other helpers
• ensure you keep the lid on tight - not only to keep possums, cats, dogs etc out of the bin but also to keep the heat generated in the bin, in the bin. this helps speed up the composting process

DON'T:

• compost corn, breads, rice or pasta - these can attract rodents
• compost meat or fish - these types of bins don't reach sufficiently high temperatures to kill any potentially harmful bacteria
• compost human waste or dog/cat poo. for basically the same reason as above.
• add water to the heap unless it's totally dry - the scraps and garden waste should provide enough moisture

If I think of anything else that's similarly important, I'll be sure to add it to the site. And if you've got any questions let me know - I may not know the answer but I could likely find out.