shredded leaves for garden

[PaulF]

With two 100+ year old, twelve foot diameter, eighty foot tall burr oak trees in the yard along with many elms, cottonwoods and several others, I was looking forward(?) to gathering the record harvest of leaves to shred and till into my garden spaces. The past three days and nights of 40-60 mph winds first from the south turning to the west and now from the north, all my leaves have left. I live on top of a hilly area and the "hollow" now has all my soil enrichment. Maybe another wind will blow them back, but I doubt it.

Looks like the compost pile will have to be emptied into the garden this year.

[newatthiskat]

Man that is bad! Just when you think you have everything covered it all blows away. Guess better than blowing up. Thought I would have leaves as well but I have a Black walnut tree in my yard and hear they are bad? Anyway I am not going to sit and pick out the leaves from the one tree. Way too labor intensive. Good luck!

[levad]

stay away from walnut leaves!

[newatthiskat]

Shoot I have a hard enough time getting them to grow as it is without adding in the Walnut issue . Thought it would be a great idea until I heard how bad the leaves could be. Think I am going to ask the neighbor if I can have their uncontaminated leaves. They will probably wonder why I have not raked mine first.
Kat

[Barryblushes]

Ive used leaves in my raised beds for several years.In our town ,everyone rakes or leaf blows all the leaves into the street.Then the town goes around and sucks them up with a leaf vacumn truck and shred them.Then in turn,they take them to a local wood mill place .What I do is rake or chomp up leaves in my own yard and sometimes neighboring yards,and put them in 55 gallon plastic barrels with the tops cut off.I chomp them up about three times and they get very fine.Then put them in all my raised beds or even save a bunch for next spring.You dont really have to chomp them up fine,but ive found they blend in better.You could go around the town,and pick up tons of leaves,and most people wouldnt mind.Ive even stopped and asked a guy mowing his leaves if i could have some,he was glad to get rid of them.

[levad]

i have a customer at my business that picks up the big paper bags of leaves at peoples houses. (he checks the trees in their yards first)
after he collects, he returns the bags to them.
its been 3 years now and the old fart has more mulch than he knows what to do with and he doesnt own a rake or a blower....or a tree!

[piegirl]

yup, my oak leaves are across the street on the apt. building's lawn as are my neighbor's. Then the rain came so I think they won't be back - this is a good thing/bad thing. I have trained the mailman to bring me his(and his neighbor's) lawn clippings and he brought me a small truck full of ash and maple leaves. AND I don't even have to share the tomatoes because he doesn't like them! Piegirl

[PaulF]

I think I hit the jackpot. A lady in our town is a gardener and her husband is a large-scale farmer and trucker. A few years ago she had him bring to her a dump truck load of compost from a nearby city compost producer. Now she wants to get rid of what she has not used. I told her to load it up in the dump truck and dump it in my garden. I think three or four year old compost will still be good.!?

Let the leaves blow down the hill to the Missouri.

[newatthiskat]

I would not think compost gets old. I don't know very much though!
Kat

[dice]

[compost aging]
It just gets finer textured and closer to the humus that one
finds on a forest floor, where years and years of leaves and
sticks have accumulated.

I was wondering what the soil was like a foot down under
this year's leaves in the hollow. Probably some incredibly
rich humus there (might be weedy, depending on what all
drifts in there).

[Tom C zone 4/5]

I have always reached out to lawn service companies. At this particular site one sweeps up a neighbors maple leaves and shreds them and cheefuly deposits them in my drive way.

About half go into bags for mulch. T'other half goes into compost bins.

I've also done the curbside thing when people put out bagged leaves.

[PaulF]

Everyone has good ideas about getting leaves except you all live in civilized areas. The closest place with a lawn service is 30 miles away. We don't have curbs let alone curbside service. And there is no such thing as bagging leaves; mostly if leaves are even raked around here they are either left in a pile close to the neighbor's yard so the wind blows them that way, or else they are burned. For the most part, Brownville is still in the 1930s as far as all that stuff goes.

The hollow does have some pretty good soil I have a feeling and someday I am going to get around to clearing it up a bit. Right now no sunlight reaches the ground during the summer and all that grows are weeds and trees. Seventy years ago it was prime grape growing ground. I envision grapes, berries and fruit trees, but I am not sure I have the years left in me to realize all that. My garden area is getting better every year, though.

[gssgarden]

I have had a small compost bin going for two years or so. Should I apply it in the winter or in the spring before planting?
Turned it over the other day and it smelled gooood. I usually put a little horse poop down the middle of my raised beds too. Wait, or apply?

Thanks in advance,

Greg

[dice]

I would wait. The reason is rain. Top-dressing it in fall, rain will
wash water soluble nitrogen and potassium out of it, possibly
down into layers of soil below where the roots will reach the
following summer, depending on how much rain you have over
the winter and how well your soil drains.

That said, if I have the extra compost I spread an inch or two
above broadcast cover crop seeds in fall to keep birds and
squirrels from eating them (this is not 100% effective with
the local squirrels, by the way; they will excavate seeds that
they like). The cover crop will recycle the nutrients in the
compost, making them available the next year whether the
cover crop top growth is turned into the soil, let lie in place
as mulch, or mowed and added to a compost pile.

You get the benefit of the added organic matter (improved
soil tilth, more earthworms) either way (fall or spring). Some
people with abundant compost (half-acre leaf and manure
piles and so on) add it in both fall and spring.

[piegirl]

so come on up - borrow a truck, Kaye can drive, I'll ride shotgun and you can hop out the back and throw those nice paper leaf bags in the back - no poison ivy mixed in - and you will have all the leaves you need/want in no time. Although the neighbor with the truck load of compost would quickly become my new best friend! Piegirl