I do it all the time. Then, after the garden is done, you just mix them in.
Greedy-Buffalo-4537
I like to chop them up, but great idea, imo.
Relax_itsa_Meme
Hey! If those are walnut tree leaves, dont do it!!! …or tree of heaven leaves!
But your pic looks like Oak
Ineedmorebtc
Fantastic idea, especially through fall and winter. They CAN keep a bed colder for longer in spring, which is great for cool weather spring crops. But if you are raring to go with summer crops, remove them during the sunny, warm spring days and your soil will warm up considerably faster. Especially if you keep the soil damp, as moist soil absorbs and retains more heat. In addition frequent shallow watering will keep the micro and macrobiome happy as the soil won’t bake dry.
Thank you for coming to my spring mulching TED Talk.
fern-grower
Lovely jubbly
sunlight_all_night
😍😍😍
ItsAllAboutThatDirt
They make a great compost base as well. I’ll go around the neighborhood and steal all my neighbors bagged up leaves. Make bins out of pallets, and dump the leaves fill inside. Take your kitchen scraps and keep burying them in the middle of the leaves, or else tossing them on top and then topping it up with a new bag of leaves every now and again. Easy peasy slow compost method. I have the benefit of living in a subtropical climate to speed it along, but you don’t need to turn it or anything if you’re willing to wait. I’ll have 4-6 bins going at various stages of competition. Halfway between compost and leaf mold and a perfect mix.bl
But yeah they’re great just on their own as a mulch as well
how2falldown
Good, though I did manage to infest my raised bed with slugs when I did this. Those leaves look nice and dry so probably no slugs.
oneWeek2024
like anything there’s pros and cons.
any mulch, that covers the soil can provide benefit. moisture retention, keeping soil not exposed to the sun/wind which can be somewhat negative for soil health, keeping soil bacteria off of plants. etc
some of the cons might be. misc leaves can mat/clump up. so if you’re hoping for seedlings or perenial crops to push up through them, there might be issues. slugs, or other pests can hide in leaves. although, that’ll largely be true of all mulch. if leaves had mold or disease on them, can be adding that to your beds.
All and all. leaves are a fine mulch, I would prob recommend if possible, going over them with a lawn mower just to break them up a bit. so maybe they don’t clump/mat so much. but in general leaves are just carbon. go for it.
Wise-Quarter-6443
I run over them with the mower once or twice in the fall, then pile them on thick.
When march comes I clear the edges of my beds and plant lettuce radish etc, and mound up the leaves in the middle. The worms work this over hard and by mid/late may when I plant toms/cukes much of it is worm castings.
I use whats left of the leaf pile to mulch my summer garden.
briandaly107
Probably the best idea. Leaf mould is my favourite mulch (put them in a pile and revisit them in 2 years). Holds up to 500% of its weight in water, and is a great soil amendment.
StrosDynasty
Great for mulching trees, less good for annual plants. They attract rolly pollies that love to chomp on young plants
Calvins8
I’ve always done it in my veggie beds and perennial beds. Soil is super healthy but watch for slugs on small veggie plants
BostonFishGolf
Good idea. Great idea is shredding them first (but wait til the last frost in case bugs are “hibernating” in there.
manyamile
I have local landscapers and neighbors divert them to my house instead of the landfill 😍
19 Comments
Great idea
Good..
I do it all the time. Then, after the garden is done, you just mix them in.
I like to chop them up, but great idea, imo.
Hey! If those are walnut tree leaves, dont do it!!! …or tree of heaven leaves!
But your pic looks like Oak
Fantastic idea, especially through fall and winter. They CAN keep a bed colder for longer in spring, which is great for cool weather spring crops. But if you are raring to go with summer crops, remove them during the sunny, warm spring days and your soil will warm up considerably faster. Especially if you keep the soil damp, as moist soil absorbs and retains more heat. In addition frequent shallow watering will keep the micro and macrobiome happy as the soil won’t bake dry.
Thank you for coming to my spring mulching TED Talk.
Lovely jubbly
😍😍😍
They make a great compost base as well. I’ll go around the neighborhood and steal all my neighbors bagged up leaves. Make bins out of pallets, and dump the leaves fill inside. Take your kitchen scraps and keep burying them in the middle of the leaves, or else tossing them on top and then topping it up with a new bag of leaves every now and again. Easy peasy slow compost method. I have the benefit of living in a subtropical climate to speed it along, but you don’t need to turn it or anything if you’re willing to wait. I’ll have 4-6 bins going at various stages of competition. Halfway between compost and leaf mold and a perfect mix.bl
But yeah they’re great just on their own as a mulch as well
Good, though I did manage to infest my raised bed with slugs when I did this. Those leaves look nice and dry so probably no slugs.
like anything there’s pros and cons.
any mulch, that covers the soil can provide benefit. moisture retention, keeping soil not exposed to the sun/wind which can be somewhat negative for soil health, keeping soil bacteria off of plants. etc
some of the cons might be. misc leaves can mat/clump up. so if you’re hoping for seedlings or perenial crops to push up through them, there might be issues. slugs, or other pests can hide in leaves. although, that’ll largely be true of all mulch. if leaves had mold or disease on them, can be adding that to your beds.
All and all. leaves are a fine mulch, I would prob recommend if possible, going over them with a lawn mower just to break them up a bit. so maybe they don’t clump/mat so much. but in general leaves are just carbon. go for it.
I run over them with the mower once or twice in the fall, then pile them on thick.
When march comes I clear the edges of my beds and plant lettuce radish etc, and mound up the leaves in the middle. The worms work this over hard and by mid/late may when I plant toms/cukes much of it is worm castings.
I use whats left of the leaf pile to mulch my summer garden.
Probably the best idea. Leaf mould is my favourite mulch (put them in a pile and revisit them in 2 years). Holds up to 500% of its weight in water, and is a great soil amendment.
Great for mulching trees, less good for annual plants. They attract rolly pollies that love to chomp on young plants
I’ve always done it in my veggie beds and perennial beds. Soil is super healthy but watch for slugs on small veggie plants
Good idea. Great idea is shredding them first (but wait til the last frost in case bugs are “hibernating” in there.
I have local landscapers and neighbors divert them to my house instead of the landfill 😍
https://preview.redd.it/l5bvhzi0hnwe1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66f758ef879c6a28cb8c9141d1caee000afd2699
Great idea
Great idea. I tried this last year with oak leaves like you have there, and they worked perfectly well.