As we are in autumn now, you can expect your garden to be covered in fallen leaves, why not have a tidy up? Leaves can be easily gathered by hand or by using a lawn rake. Once you have pulled together the fallen leaves and your garden looks tidy again, you may consider using those leaves to create a compost bin and therefore end up with leaf mould to use on your garden.
Leaf mould is brilliant; the dark, crumbly finished product is a great soil amendment and conditioner. It is easy to handle, good to any type of soil, and cuts down the amount of watering you need to do. Also, it’s FREE, the ideal way to look after your garden! If we’re going to be dealing with droughts in the future, increasing the moisture retention of our soils is important.
Using leaf mould saves you from using peat on your garden, as are you are cleaning up those leaves anyway you may as well get something out of it too buy reusing the mould to condition the rest of your garden.
As previously mentioned…”it is easy”, see below, just how easy it really is.
- Gather your leaves
- Water them (this helps them to rot)
- Store the leaves in your compost bin
- Ignore for 1 – 2 years
- Use the leaf mould that has been created
Top tip: To speed up the process of making leaf mould, you may like to chop up the leaves you have gathered in the compost bin. Leaves generally rot more quickly when chopped up.
How to use leaf mould effectively:
Spread about 7cm of leaf mould onto your poor soil and work it in with a garden fork, be aware there may be roots of plant which you don’t want to dig up. After doing this, you are done; the leaf mould will then nourish your soil until next autumn.