Cost-Effective Mulching With Leaves

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by Adobe Stock/imageegami

Try mulching with leaves for a cost-effective alternative to commercial mulches. Shredded leaves control weed growth while providing soil with organic nutrients.

For those who question the fertilizing power of tree leaves, I would share a couple of anecdotes. 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 miles away. I’m doing the people of Farmington a favor by hauling theirs away (the town used to do it but no more), plus they’re already raked into piles, relatively free of twigs and branches. Of course, I always ask the owner if I may take them, even though the response is predictably something like “What! Is the pope Catholic?” At one home on a shady side street, I asked the owner, an elderly woman, and she answered graciously, “No, I want them myself.” Intrigued, I asked wherefore, and she replied, “I need them for my garden.” Delighted, I probed further. She, having no known ideological views on the subject, 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 supply grass clippings, and she had no access to manure. She had no formal system for shredding or composting; she merely said: “I mull them over from time to time.” That had been her “system” for years, and the heavy-feeding cabbages and leeks I saw testified to her success. The huge pile of leaves in her yard was waiting to be converted into next year’s sauerkraut!

Second story: I once persuaded the Town of Farmington street commissioner that they should truck their curbside leaves up to my place rather than to the town dump. Yes, he hastened to agree, it made good sense for everyone. The first two truckloads landed in my leaf dump, and I congratulated myself that henceforth I would merely wait for the annual windfall. Next year, they didn’t show up, so I asked the street commissioner, “what gives?” Well, it turns out that they need them at the landfill. “Need them?” I repeated dumbly. It seems they need them to add to the cleanings of the fairground horse stables. “Ah,” says I knowingly, “it’s to balance the excess nitrogen in the manure.” Weeell, not quite, he corrected me; it’s rather that all that sawdust bedding makes the piles cold, despite the pony droppings. What! They’re using “my” leaves to heat up horse hockey so it will be well-composted? And does it? “Yep,” assured the commissioner.

Shredding Leaves

  • Published on Jan 28, 2016
Tagged with: leaf compost, leaf mulch
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