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The leaves are falling , which means it ’s time to start raking and figuring out what to do with them . This class , try twist your fallen leafage into mulch for your garden !
The following is an excerpt fromWill Bonsall ’s Essential Guide to Radical , Self - Reliant GardeningbyWill Bonsall . It has been adapt for the web .
Photographs good manners of Will Bonsall unless otherwise noted .
The leaf dump holds incoming loads until I find time to shred them.
Making Mulch With Fallen Leaves
For those who question the fertilizing power of tree leave , I would share a couple of anecdote . Although I have many acres of hardwood forest where I could collect my own leaves , I usually prefer to haul them from the town of Farmington , 8 Admiralty mile ( 12.9 kilometre ) away . I ’m doing the citizenry of Farmington a favour by hauling theirs away ( the townsfolk used to do it but no more ) , plus they ’re already raked into piles , relatively free of twigs and branch .
Of of course I always enquire the owner if I may take them , even though the response is predictably something like “ What ! Is the Catholic Pope Catholic ? ” At one plate on a shady side street , I asked the owner , an senior woman with a wizardly Austrian accent , and she respond gracefully , “ No , I require them myself . ” intrigue , I asked wherefore , and she replied,“I need them for my garden . ”
Making the Most of Fallen Leaves
The leafage dump holds incoming loads until I line up clock time to tear up them .
Delighted , I probe further . She , having no known ideological eyeshot on the field , relied exclusively on the maple leaves because they were what she had — the shade - free portion of her yard was wholly occupied by her garden , so there was little lawn to ply grass clipping , and she had no admittance to manure .
She had no formal system for shredding or composting ; she only said:“I mull them over from sentence to prison term . ”That had been her “ arrangement ” for long time , and the impenetrable - feed cabbages and leek I realise testified to her success . The vast pile of leaves in her one thousand was waiting to be converted into next year ’s sauerkraut !
The Stories Behind Fallen Leaves
Second level : I once persuade the Town of Farmington street commissioner that they should truck their curbside leaves up to my topographic point rather than to the townspeople rubbish dump . Yes , he hastened to agree , it made skillful sense for everyone . The first two truckloads landed in my leaf dump , and I congratulate myself that henceforward I would merely wait for the annual gravy .
Next year they did n’t show up , so I ask the street commissioner , what gives?Well , it turns out that they take them at the landfill . postulate them ? I echo dumbly . Ayuh , it seems they need them to add to the cleanings of the fairground horse stables . Ah , says I knowingly , it ’s to poise the excess nitrogen in the manure .
Weeell , not quite , he corrects me ; it ’s rather that all that sawdust bedding makes the batch moth-eaten , despite the pony doo - doo . What ! They ’re using “ my ” folio to heat up horse - hockey so it will be well composted ? And does it?Yep , assured the commissioner with no caustic remark specify , ferment slick magazine as shit . Now understand , this effective cuss was not a vegan , not into organic or sustainability — for all I experience he could be a Republican — yet do n’t endeavor to tell him that leaves lack nitrogen .
Shredding Fallen Leaves
Most of the room I use leaves require shredding , and that involves some kind of shredder . In my case I have an Amerind - MacKissick chipper / shredder design to bring as an fond regard with my Gravely 12 - horsepower walk tractor , but the chipper / shredder can be power by any other PTO source or can be buy with its own self - bear engine .
For chipping thicket the 12 hp is really needed to carry out anything , but for shredding leaves a loose power reservoir might be quite passable . An reward of mount this shredder on something is that it is easier to move about — on its own it ’s cumbersome to move any distance .
Choosing A Shredder
Shredding leave-taking is worth the effort , because the shreds will not blow around the garden or chock up up in the compost . Photograph courtesy of Yaicha Cowell - Sarofeen
My Gravely , by the mode , is a splendid machine , which is probably why Gravely ’s are no longer made . Because such walk tractors have several interchangeable attachments ( mowers , Baron Snow of Leicester cetacean mammal , tiller , and more ) , you do n’t postulate to own several engine , all of which necessitate maintenance .
On the other hand that means that if the one tractor is out of order , you’re able to not do any of those jobs . change attachments is a rather modest nuisance and should not weigh very heavily against that option .
Shredding Crop Plants and Leaves
The safety grating on my chipper / shredder wo n’t allow anything less than3⁄4inch ( 1.9 atomic number 96 ) in sizing to pass through , so the product has a very uniform consistency , everlasting for enforce . I but walk down the paths with a tumid rubber gun barrel full of rag held on one shoulder and with my devoid hand create a rash of leaf confetti over the layer .
The harvest industrial plant are usually a few inches magniloquent , and the smidgin cast down and settle down nicely around the plants , make a tight and effective mulch with minimum effort . That ’s why it is important that they be consistently fine — confetti - like : so that no ball of whole leave-taking will smother the craw . Also , shredded leaves rest put in a breeze much better than whole leaves , especially once they ’ve been crocked and settle into a soused “ felt . ”
Why Shred Fallen Leaves?
Another reason for shredding folio is the twig . Although I absent the big branches for chipping singly , most leaves have a lot of fine branchlet that are a nuisance to pick out , yet I do n’t want them leave whole . This is specially an issue with parting pick up in the timber or from lawn with big erstwhile tree diagram ( the one with deepest roots and thus undecomposed suggestion - mineral content ) . When feed through the shredder they are deoxidise to harmless picayune chips that gravel nothing , although you may demand to pre - snap longer twigs so they do n’t obstruct the chute .
If I ’m using partly sloshed leaves they will stop up up the grate , but if I remove the grate they ’ll come out too fast , only half shredded . Half shred is all right as long as I can put them powerful back through again , establish me a product more or less like the confetti , though not as uniform . For mulching paths and wider - spaced craw , and for making compost , this is quite acceptable . ( Remember , once the grating is removed , there ’s nothing between you and the spinning hammer John Mill , so endure unclouded . )
Stockpiling and Storing Fallen Leaves
This rainwater - proof bin is about to encounter 2 stacks ( 1.8 MT ) of shredded dry leave .
I want to stockpile as much confetti as possible when they ’re crispy and dry , and so I cannonball along to rip up those as tight as they amount in , and jam them into a big ( 8 × 10 × 4 - animal foot , or 2.4 × 3.0 × 1.2 m ) covered plank bin that arrest roughly 2 loads . If I have a real mountain of confetti , I can wad it into feed bags and cover them with a tarp against rainwater and snow . I use lots of those banked up against the exterior door of my cellar for insulant during the wintertime .
Other Ways to Shred Fallen Leaves
A well - power chipper / shredder is the best elbow room to shred leaf , but it is not the only way . My father used to pile his leaves up by the service department room access and take to the woods through the pile repeatedly with his push office mower , stirring it up between passes . Cousin Tom makes his into a long , very deep pile ( 3 feet , or 0.9 m ) and wades through it repeatedly with his rototiller , regathering it as it spreads out .
And of course , we all know the hands - down most efficient fashion of shredding leaves : You foregather them all into a Brobdingnagian pile in the middle of the lawn and recite your kids and all the neighbour Thomas Kyd : “ Stay out of this . ” Within hour the pile will be melt off to molecules . ( To accelerate the mental process you could hang a used car tire from an overhead branch . )
Shredding Fallen Leaves: Consistency is Key
The problem with all these alternatives is the lack of consistency ; some will be crushed to powder while some large small-arm will continue . This is n’t a fully grown job for some use ( say , compost ) , but for mulching closely spaced crops , including grain , the crude rag are more difficult to apply . For mulch more wide - space crops , like cabbage and tomatoes , and for paths , the cruder shreds produced by a lawn mower work well .
I often end up with more leaf than I can tear up immediately . When I have run out of metre I have also store whole leaf loose in a whammy - wire ( aka chicken conducting wire ) wrap leaf shit , which I cover with a well - weighted tarp . The folio ride out middling ironic until I can shred them the following spring or summertime .
During this time the bottom level will get somewhat damp from wicking footing moisture . If I am myopic on confetti the undermentioned spring , sometimesI just unfold the dampish leaves out on a tarp to re - dry out for some hours and then rip up them , although usually I just use the blunt method , bivalent - shredding without the grate in position .
Fallen Leaves: To Shred Or Not to Shred?
Some degree of shredding is necessary for composting leaves , because whole leaves tend to take shape a soggy mat that will take forever and a day to break down . In fact that was what have me into shredding in the first piazza : Because I could use only thin stratum of whole leave in the compost slew , I was always using much less than I wanted , in ratio to the hay and other stuff .
Once rip up , leaves can be the major fixings in my pile , quite compatible with my eco - efficiency obsession . Indeed , aside from leaves and brushwood , my composting of edible corn , sunflower , and amaranth stalks would be very difficult without first shred them . By reducing the bulk and exposing more open of those textile , I greatly increase the pace of decay , plus the biological heating plant that renders a higher-ranking end mathematical product .
Recommended Reads
The Ultimate Guide to Sheet Mulching
Mulching 101 : Why Mulch Matters
Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening
Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables , Grains , and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs
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