Make Your Own Leaf Compost For Your Garden

It’s leaf mold making season! Autumn leaves are the quintessential sign of fall. Lucky for us, they’re not only pretty…but also useful. Composting leaves is a simple thanks to transform them into DIY natural fertilizer. This tutorial explains exactly the way to make leaf compost from your fallen leaves into nutrient-dense fertilizer for your garden.

Leaves are a fantastic example of the nutrient cycle that happens within the backyard. Trees fill their leaves all summer with nutrients drawn from deep within the bottom. Then the leaves fall to the bottom surface, providing nutrients to smaller plants and back to the tree. Decomposing leaves also act as a mulch when left on the bottom, smothering unwanted weeds and providing habitat for little creatures. In short, fallen leaves make soil wake up.

Save the Leaves for leaf mold (And Never Send Lovely Leaves Away!)

I get so sad once I see the luggage of leaves on the corner, able to be carted away. Don’t these people understand they're sending beautiful organic matter off of their land!? Are they crazy? We only get leaves once a year…they should be saved and treasured, not trucked to our landfills to require up space.

You may be tempted to ask your neighbors for his or her bagged leaves once you get as excited about composting leaves as I do. Restrain yourself unless you'll make certain the trees haven’t been sprayed with pesticides. Your own leaves, which you recognize haven’t been sprayed, are the safest leaves.

Leaf Mold:

Making Leaf Compost for your Lawn and Garden

In the wilder areas of our yard, I let the leaves stay the bottom as mulch. These areas were previously covered in bark mulch, then composting leaves aren’t getting to harm anything (like grass). The leaf mulch keeps the weeds down and retains nutrients for the trees.

On our lawn however, leaves must be raked up. If they don’t get raked up, they’ll make a pleasant mat when the rain comes and smother the grass below. This is often one among the processes that trees use to out-compete grass! Don’t let the fallen leaves kill your lawn if you don’t want them to. If you’re uninterested in your lawn, by all means, let the trees out-compete it.

We compost the leaves that land on the grass to make nutrient-dense fertilizer (leaf mold) for the garden. First, we mow over the leaves with a mulching lawnmower. Shredding the leaves speeds the decomposition process. It's much easier to shred them in existing place than during a pile (we know this from experience….). Once the leaves are adequately shredded, we rake them up into piles. A wheelbarrow is ideal for transporting the shredded leaves to the compost bin.

Being outside within the crisp fall air raking leaves may be a wonderful thanks to get a workout. I might take raking leaves over going for a run on the treadmill any day.

Making leaf mold Compost in Compost Bins

My dream compost bin arrangement for composting leaves may be a 3 bin-system: One for building, one for turning, one for finished compost. the primary bin receives new organic matter, just like the shredded leaves. After the compost heap within the first bin heats up, it's transferred into the second bin. The transfer process mixes up the pile, turning the compost and helping decomposition. The compost is finally transferred to the third bin, which is employed to store finished compost for immediate use.

This isn’t the fastest way of composting, but it’s the foremost practical for our household. I don’t have time to be out there measuring the temperature, investigating the moisture content, and turning the pile all the time with great care that my compost are often wiped out a few months. But…I do wish to have many compost! And I’m willing to attend for it.

We generally have only two-bin compost system, so we don’t have a storage bin (the third bin). We just place finished compost round the yard as soon as it’s done.

The Perfect Organic leaf mold Requires Leaves And…sometimes…

So do leaves alone make perfect organic compost? Almost. Compost generally requires 4 things: Carbon-rich material, nitrogen-rich material, water, and air. Carbon-rich elements are usually dry and brittle, like shredded paper or fallen leaves. This portion gives the pile bulk. Nitrogen-rich materials, like dregs or grass clippings, are usually moist. Nitrogen kick-starts decomposition.

Since dead leaves are filled with carbon, they will use a touch of a nitrogen kick to urge the decomposition going. dregs are a very good nitrogen resource. Save your dregs up or collect them from coffee shops (Starbucks bags them and provides them out!).

Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio for Composted Leaves

An efficient method of composting leaves is to make a pile with a C:N ratio (carbon to nitrogen) of about 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen by weight. consistent with the this excellent small-scale composting guide from the Cornell Waste Management Institute, leaves have a C:N ratio of anywhere to 30-80:1. Nitrogen-rich dregs have a C:N ratio of 20:1 (note that while dregs contain more nitrogen than leaves do, grounds still do contain 20x more carbon than nitrogen). Grass clippings have a C:N ratio of 12-25:1.

It are often hard to make the right compost heap in your yard right off the bat due to the variation in C:N ratio between various source ingredients. Some trees have leaves with more carbon than others. Some leaves are mulched along side grass clippings while others are raked up with none nitrogen-rich grass. Some grass clippings are dry and not all that nitrogen-rich! Just attempt to approximate as best you'll and adjust your recipe as you attend fit your unique ingredients.

If you’re getting worried about the ratio, remember that leaves decompose in nature with none human effort. Most leaf mold is formed with just leaves.

Without added nitrogen, composting leaves are slow to decompose. an excessive amount of nitrogen, however, will cause the compost to become slimy and smell bad. Because it are often difficult to make a pile with a particular ratio of 30:1 carbon to nitrogen, I generally err on the side of excess carbon because I’d prefer the pile take a touch longer than to possess a slimy, smelly mess in my yard. Experiment together with your ingredients and you’ll learn what works best for you in your environment.

Supplies for creating leaf mold

• Fall Leaves (lots of various sorts of deciduous leaves is perfect)
• Compost Bin or Designated Heap Area
• Mulching Lawnmower
• Rake
• Wheelbarrow
• Coffee Grounds (or other nitrogen-rich organic material like grass clippings or manure)
• Hose or watering pot

How to Turn Leaves into leaf mold

• Watch to ascertain when the leaves fall to the bottom. Using freshly-fallen leaves ensures most of their nutrients are still locked up inside them. Dry leaves will help the pile retain air voids (wet mats of leaves will decrease the air within the pile). While you’re enjoying the autumn colors and expecting the leaves to fall, consider which nitrogen source you’ll mix together with your leaves (check out this table from Planet Natural which enlists the approx C:N ratio of common yard waste items).
• Run the mulching lawnmower over the freshly-fallen leaves. Take several passes over the leaves if you'll in order that they are finely shredded. Don’t worry if you’re mixing in grass clippings as you go – that’s an honest thing! The grass clippings will add a source of nitrogen to your compost heap.
• Rake the leaves up into piles.
• Use the wheelbarrow to move the primary load of leaves to the compost bin or designated patch of land.
• Place the load of leaves into the open compost bin or onto the designated spot. The leaves covering must be at-least 4 inch in thickness.
• Place a layer of dregs or other nitrogen-rich material on top of the leaves. Keep the 30:1 ratio in mind and adjust for the other nitrogen sources like grass clippings which may be mixed in with the leaves (remember that the C:N ratio is by weight). Further reading on the carbon:nitrogen ratio are often found during this guide.
• Use the hose or watering pot to moisten the pile. If you've got access to natural outdoor soil or some old compost, sprinkle a touch on. The mineral grains and biological life in natural soil and compost will give your compost a lift.
• Repeat steps 4-7 for every subsequent load of leaves. This process should cause a layered, moist, compost heap. make sure you are adding dregs (or other nitrogen source) whenever you bring new leaves to take care of the C:N ratio, and don’t forget to moisten the pile! Your complete heap must be 5′ wide and 3′ high.
• Turn the pile after fortnight, or once the bin fills up. Note that if you switch it frequently, it'll be done sooner!

You can eventually get fancy with compost if that’s your jam, measuring the temperature, perfecting the moisture content, and calculating your amounts of ingredients….but for now, just get started! Adjust as you go and luxuriate in using your finished compost in your garden. Grab a free printable copy of those instructions to require bent the yard with you using this form:

Leaf mold piles fully sun will decompose faster than piles within the shade. The composting process will speed up in weather and hamper within the winter. Well-shredded leaves will compost faster than large leaves. Change things up and notice of how the pile behaves.

How to Use your leaf mold Compost

I place a layer of leaf mold compost (1″-2″) over my garden within the fall to feed next year’s crop and also to smother weeds. Compost is additionally an excellent tree fertilizer for little trees as they get established. I place a skinny layer of compost on the bottom round the tree as fertilizer. make certain to avoid touching the bark with the compost (moisture against bark invites disease). Sometimes I top the layer of compost with a layer of fresh shredded leaves for added winter protection.

Composting Autumn Leaves into leaf mold

Composting leaves may be a sustainable thanks to recycle leaves into wonderful leaf mold fertilizer. Recycling the leaves in your own backyard reduces the transport footprint that results from trucking the leaves off your property. Composting leaves also reduces the general space required in landfills. Lastly, leaf mold compost creates ultimate organic plant food!

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