Glad the leaves have nearly finished falling

[Robert Cummings]

I'm so glad the leaves have nearly finished falling, we now have every composting receptacle known to man filled to the brim with them, what a great source of compost they make when mixed with other green waste. Some folk seem to think they take too long to decompose but actually this is true of dry leaves only which tend to sit and do nothing for some time, my experience is that if you water your leaves when they are dry on the heap this seems to encourage or speed up the decomposition process, also keep turning the heap you'll be surprised how quickly you have lovely workable FREE compost.

 

[roadrunner]

They do break down quickly as long as you have a healthy environment and some moisture -- take away the moisture and those little workers go to sleep.

Every year I dig into my garden areas I notice that the rich, crumbly soil that lays on top of the native sand gets deeper and deeper. The bulk of that OM is from leaves and sticks. The areas are so built up with soil organisms that once I throw another layer of OM, it gets gobbled up very quickly.

They say it takes 500 - 1,000 years to build up one inch of topsoil. It doesn't take near that long in my yard.

https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/soil-formation/

 

[Robert Cummings]

Just shows that sometimes working in harmony with nature sometimes, just sometimes we can make things better..don't know about you but I couldn't wait 5 years let alone few 500 for another inch of topsoil..

 

[Robert Cummings]

Don't know what's up with my device it seems to be inventing it's own predictive text.

 

[Silentrunning]

I have found that I can speed the decomposition by mowing and bagging my leaves. Some of the bigger leaves I will mow over twice to break them down better. Mixed with partially composted grass clippings, cow or horse manure and a little dirt it makes a great compost in a year.

 

[alp]

I have about 10 bags of leaves still hanging around. It's still dark 7am. I don't really want to break the law. I think I will just bunk them into a compost bin. Otherwise, they will be staring at me at Christmas.

 

[Verdun]

Agree with Robert .....I tend now to mix leaves too with green waste rather than left on their own. Also with regular turning of the compost heaps; this keeps them working longer to produce better compost more quickly
Mowing the leaves too, if possible, speeds up the decomposition process

 

[roadrunner]

When I pick up yard waste around my neighborhood, the vast majority are in garbage bags. I don't use those bags to store the leaves, but I do wash out those bags and use them for my own garbage.

I can't remember the last time I bought a box of garbage bags at the store

 

[LIcenter]

When I pick up yard waste around my neighborhood, the vast majority are in garbage bags. I don't use those bags to store the leaves, but I do wash out those bags and use them for my own garbage.

I can't remember the last time I bought a box of garbage bags at the store

Frugal you are roadrunner! Give me another week, and you are more than welcome to to grab my 30 fifty five gallon bags. No way can I compost that amount of leaves.

 

[alp]

Agree with Robert .....I tend now to mix leaves too with green waste rather than left on their own. Also with regular turning of the compost heaps; this keeps them working longer to produce better compost more quickly
Mowing the leaves too, if possible, speeds up the decomposition process

Definitely! Mowing breaks down the leaves into small surface areas. and hence speeds up decomposition.

 

[alp]

I can't remember the last time I bought a box of garbage bags at the store

Are you serious? Or just joking? You've some very wasteful neighbours and you're in a good catchment area!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

now that my absolute ton of leaves have fallen, its more work, pile them high and strike the match. or drag them into the woods. well today, snow covers them, so have to wait to work on them after the snow is gone and they are dried. but did do the front pretty decent, and some of the back couple weekends ago.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

They do break down quickly as long as you have a healthy environment and some moisture -- take away the moisture and those little workers go to sleep.

I have so many leaves that we have to rotate the pile in the woods as the PILE takes two years to break down.

 

[roadrunner]

Are you serious? Or just joking? You've some very wasteful neighbours and you're in a good catchment area!

100% serious. There are some areas around here that have tons of live oak trees, so this time of year I'm out looking...

Plus, I throw my recyclables directly in a can designed for recyclables, no garbage bag needed (or wanted).

Since so much gets recycled, it can take me up to a month to fill a garbage bag with enough non-recyclable garbage before I put it out for pick up. And since I don't throw away food and clean off all foodstuff, my trash never stinks. It's one of my pet peeves -- I hate stinky trash.

 

[alp]

Amazing! I recycle too. When my son was in uni, I threw out one black household rubbish bag once in 3 weeks and my gawd, it really stank. Sometimes there were even maggots. Well, life cycle for some. I kept the bag outside. It's a nightmare. I used to have a recyclable papers and plastic once a month. You must be very well organised. I wish I had oak trees around. I would have a house built with the timber. Freshly sawn timber smells divine! Surprised how people throw out good heavy duty rubbish bags which are 1/3 filled up. What is the point?