Fall Cleanup--leaf mulch

Fall cleanup

October/November

The Lovely Assistant has always enjoyed playing in leaves!

We do love the autumn! The leaves on the trees in this area usually are so pretty just before they fall…and then the leaves do fall...and become useful in the garden! I am always pleased to see a multitude of leaves from our trees in our yard. No matter what the soil tests indicate, an amendment of leaf mulch into the soil is always a good idea!

We like to deeply blanket the overwintering plants in our garden as well as any bare-earth beds. Having lots of leaves around also means that I am going to get the fun of watching kiddos make monstrous leaf piles (I am talking four to five feet high) to play in. One of our family's favorite activities this time of year used to be to make a monster leaf pile next to the tire swing, then to figure out all the different ways we could drag ourselves through the leaves and still stay on the swing--fun! Sadly, the Lovely Assistant and the neighborhood kids outgrew that activity.

But I digress. Treasure the leaves you have from untreated, chemical-free trees. Leaf mulch will do wonderful things for your garden. In this area, with its clayey soils, we need all the amendments we can get to improve it, and this free nutrient resource literally just falls into your backyard, ready to go! Why send all those nutrients in bags to the lawn waste facility when you can reuse them in your garden and eliminate bagging to send to the composting facility?!

If your kids have raked them into piles, the leaves will cling to each other and be less prone to flying down the street when sharp winds blow. We prefer to run over the leaves with our lawnmower so the leaves will be chopped into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces seem to provide better blanketing protection around our cold-weather crops such as the garlic and shallot and kale. However, it is not necessary to chop them up in order to benefit.

It is also important for us to make sure that our berry bushes, fig tree and rose bush get their fair share of leaf material. Winter winds can be quite desiccating to the aboveground parts of perennials and shrubs.

Do not have enough leaves of your own? We never seem to have enough leaves and have been known to appropriate them (with permission!) from the neighbors. The year I was able to flag down a leaf raking company in my neighborhood and have them dump their leaves in my driveway was the best year ever for leaves. That year I finally had enough leaves to blanket everything I wanted to! (And the raking company was able to avoid the refuse dumping fees with the city for those leaves, so it was a win/win for both.)

Do not forget to wear a mask while processing leaves if you have issues with mold and dust! It saves so much trouble later hacking stuff out the lungs!

Amend your soil with lovely leaves, and your plants and soil will thank you next growing season.

Have a blessed autumn season!

Spring tulips erupting from their winter leaf bed.