Oak and Other Hardwood Leaves as Mulch

[rockhound]

At least use enough forrest duff to "seed" your compost piles with the mold and fungi that will get decomp started quickly.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Agreed, Rob. The forest makes tons of the stuff every year - you aren't going to harm it by taking as much as you need.

Imagine if every person in his neighborhood had that same thought.

It is this line of thinking that has our world in the shape it is in today. I want what I want what I want, so I'm just going to take it from the wild...what harm could it do. Its free. Look how clever I am.

Or not.

[travis]

I agree 100%.

There is so much material available from urban yardscapes that otherwise goes to landfills, or is thoughtlessly tossed over creek banks, or is washed down street gutters and into our streams, rivers, and estuaries that can be composted or directly applied as mulch.

Why go out into a natural riparian or cadastral habitat and however "carefully" disturb the developing subsurface bio/lithosphere? There's enough 4-wheelers and dirt bikers doing that for us already!

[SIP Gro-Tubs]

Make contact with a large lawn maintance company. Fresh grass clipping, leaves, all bagged for you, they will most likely have a 20-40 C/Y open top dumpster at thier buisness that they let you have whatever you want.

Terry Layman

[travis]

I would never use grass clippings obtained from a commercial lawn service company!

People who use commercial lawn care services generally use commercial turf maintenance services as well, and those include applications of herbicides many of which are extremely fatal particularly to tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and peanuts.

Moreover, some of the more effective herbicides used to control weeds in grass turf will persist in compost and soil for up to 4 years and still remain fatal to tomatoes.

[ScottinAtlanta]

I guess you are right in heavily populated areas with many scavengers. I should have specified.

Georgia has enough natural compost for a million gardeners, though. We are adding forest volume by 20% a year since our trees grow faster than we can cut them. The woods are knee deep in compost. Come take what you want.

[marc_groleau]

Although I appreciate the sentiment on both side regarding the ecological impact of using leaves from the woods, the original question was whether or not leaf litter from hardwoods would have negative impact on the garden. Looks like all posters so far agree that leaf litter in the garden is a good thing. Thanks all for your input.

[SIP Gro-Tubs]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

I guess you are right in heavily populated areas with many scavengers. I should have specified.

Georgia has enough natural compost for a million gardeners, though. We are adding forest volume by 20% a year since our trees grow faster than we can cut them. The woods are knee deep in compost. Come take what you want.

Maybe the way it is now, but GA. is gearing up big time in the Pellet mill industry, and all along the coast are new shipping terminals being built to ship the pellets overseas to the UK, and EU.

Not to far in the future, a lot of wood is going to go missing to oversea buyers.

Terry

[ScottinAtlanta]

I hope you are right, Terry. We are really hoping for that -- all investments in biopellets so far have been a bust. If we can get the costs down, these pellets can actually replace coal in generator boilers. Georgia needs a new industry.

Georgia can fuel the world with our trees. We are called the Saudi Arabia of pine trees. We have more trees now than we have had since the early 1800s, as agriculture declines and our land returns to trees.

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

I hope you are right, Terry. We are really hoping for that -- all investments in biopellets so far have been a bust. If we can get the costs down, these pellets can actually replace coal in generator boilers. Georgia needs a new industry.

Georgia can fuel the world with our trees. We are called the Saudi Arabia of pine trees. We have more trees now than we have had since the early 1800s, as agriculture declines and our land returns to trees.

I read a USGS government report many years ago that stated we now have more acres forested than at any time in the historical past. It didn't say biological past, only historical past. The report included maps of forested areas versus plains, grasslands, and deserts when the nation was founded. The comparison map showed current forest acreage in comparison and it was approximately 10% greater.

Use all the forest leaves you want.

Oak leaves pile up along my fence lines two or three feet deep each winter. I fill garbage bags with them and carry them to my garden. In the spring, I use them to cover my small tomato plants when a frost is predicted. They make great insulation and then become mulch when the tomato plants height exceeds my ability to pile more leaves on them. They work great as insulation and mulch and compost as they decompose. They really reduce the weed population also. The only problem I have is copperhead snakes camouflage pattern makes them hard to see on the leaves. I always check twice before I harvest anything near the soil.

Ted

[tlintx]

I wish our town would let me go in and rip out all of the invasives. I could make enough compost to last years from the asiatic jasmine alone.

I've never seen anyone spraying on yard work day. It's usually manual labor stuff. But I'm not from a lawn kind of place, so the whole process is opaque to me!


Tl

[ScottinAtlanta]

Every since I bought a wood chipper, I don't need to find mulch. My half acre produces about 2 tons of nature waste a year from leaves, falling branches, English ivy, and prunings, and my neighbors put out their waste in nice big brown paper bags which I occasionally snatch. A few minutes with my wood chipper, and I have a beautifully mulched mix that goes into the compost pile for next year. It is a gas powered Craftsman 7.5 hp Wood Chipper I got it off Craigslist for $260 - I am sure most of you can do the same.

If I am chipping tree branches only, I use the mulch around flower beds. Fresh oak mulch - works wonderfully.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by marc_groleau

I'm thinking about going into the woods that surround my garden and bringing back leaves from the forest floor to use as mulch. Any downside to doing this? I wouldn't want to introduce any organisms that have a negative impact on my garden.

Thanks,

My property generates a lot of oak and maple leaves which i use a lot of in my compost piles. As far as a mulch goes, they seem to matt down too much unless they are well chopped up or shredded. I have aslo noticed that they seem to keep the soil cooler than grass clippings. Not sure why as you would think the darker color would attract the heat more. Anyway, just my experience.

[dustdevil]

Leaves are good for more friable soil and earthworms. I would be cautious if you have slug problems. I have found that leaves sometimes get compacted when used as a mulch on the surface...I prefer to till them in periodically. I can't see messing with a forest when you can get all the bags of leaves from a city for free. City residents usually have to pay for leaf bags to be picked up, so people are more than happy to give them to you. WIN-WIN...they save a couple bucks a bag and you get them already scooped up for free! I wouldn't worry too much about lawn chems on the leaves, you're not suppose to fertilize in the late fall when the leaves are falling. Grass is going dormant then and you're not suppose to stimulate it out of dormancy by using fertilizer.

[Stvrob]

"I can't see messing with a forest when you can get all the bags of leaves from a city for free."

Hmm.. decision time. Push the wheelbarrow 50 feet into the woods to collect leaves, or drive to the nearest city looking for peoples yard clippings?