How to use fallen leaves. What to do with fallen leaves

Autumn-autumn ... As the song says, the forest has cooled down and threw off the leaves ... This time is truly colorful and mysterious. You go, and the leaves rustle under your feet. For janitors, leaf litter is a real problem, but for gardeners, on the contrary, it is an excellent means of improving the quality of the soil. After all, from the fallen yellow, red, brown decoration can be prepared very good humus to enrich the soil in the garden. Such a gift from nature itself has a harmonious combination of properties, therefore more and more summer residents prefer natural to chemical or artificial.
  Leaf litter collection

Crushed foliage: is it useful?

Many argue that the humus from the foliage of walnut and other trees does not contain nutrients. But they are wrong. Such fertilizers contain sulfur, iron, phosphorus, nitrogen and other trace elements that are essential for soil and plants. In addition, leaf litter loosens the ground, retains moisture in hot weather and saturates the soil layer with oxygen. In addition, humus is a favorite habitat for earthworms, which provide invaluable assistance to gardeners.

Mother Nature thought of everything so subtly that a person is sometimes amazed. Solar energy is accumulated green crown. And in the fall, the leaves falling from the trees perfectly fertilize the soil. Many people took note: once in the forest, in the lap of nature, everything grows without chemical additives and artificial fertilizers, so to speak, why not use this principle for the benefit of your vegetable garden. Therefore, leaf mulch has become an indispensable tool in the garden and at the dacha.

The leaves of ash, cherry, walnut, oak and other trees give new life to the soil organisms, which, in turn, gradually process the material that has fallen to them. Such complex "connections" saturate the soil with useful elements, and harmful substances are destroyed into simple components. As a result of cohesive work, plants receive organic additives without harming the environment.


  Autumn leaves - the future fertilizer
  Long-term experience of gardeners proves that to make fertilizer in the fall means to get an unsurpassed harvest next year. All the advantages of natural humus are obvious:

• cost savings (useful for the family budget),
• soil nutrition (useful for plants, insects and small animals),
• preventing weeds and normalizing the temperature of land cover at different times of the year (useful for harvest).

Humus cooking recipes

There are several types of humus from leaf litter. Each of them differs in its composition and method of preparation of fertilizer. For example, fallen nut leaves are very popular. Even if there are no trees in the country, you can use the showered leaves from the forest. Bring them home and make humus.


  Composting box
  The recipe is as follows:

1. dig a hole with dimensions of 1 m * 1 m, the depth should not exceed 1-1.5 m;
2. collect all the leaves on the site and brought from other places and dump it into a prepared earthen "capacity";
3. pour a bunch of water;
4. tamp carefully;
5. cover with soil (soil thickness varies in the range of 0.2-0.3 m).

In the spring, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and other vegetables are planted in this “enriched” territory. In the autumn, after harvesting, dig a hole and sprinkle cooked humus from rotted leaves throughout the site. If there is some natural “wealth” left in the pit, it is good. It is filled with earth, and part of the contents remains for the next year.


  Leaf compost
  Special attention should be paid to humus from large walnut leaves. They contain more organic matter than other foliage. In order to fertilize the soil with humus in the future, you need to do the following:

• put foliage in the compost pile;
• to dissolve 20-30 gr. nitrogen fertilizer in 10 liters of water and spray a pile of prepared composition;
• spring periodically shake the forks and moisten the foliage in the compost heap.

Remember that nut leaves are very “hard” to decompose. Therefore, for their speedy conversion into top dressing for the soil, it is better to add mowed grass or sawdust.


  Tool for collecting foliage
  High-quality humus from foliage is a dark, crumbly, uniform in color and texture, mass without whole leaves. To make high-quality humus, you need to adhere to one rule: the leaves must always be wet. It does not need a large amount of oxygen, as for compost, but moisture is needed. So after laying the leaves in a container or pit, they must be poured over with water and periodically repeated moistening.

So, it is time to get acquainted with the intricacies of the use of rotted leaves:


  Leaf litter mulch

• In winter, the cover of deciduous mulch is useful as an upper, protective layer: from weeds, leaching of soil, weathering.
• It is not recommended to prepare fertilizers from foliage of fruit trees and berry bushes, since pathogens can “live” on the leaves. To get at least some benefit from the decoration of fruit-bearing trees, the leaves are burned, and the resulting ash is used in the garden.
• Leaf litter is used to fertilize not only vegetable crops, but also fruit trees and bushes. To do this, around the perimeter of tree growth, a square with a side of 1.2 m is undermined. The top layer of soil (about 0.2 m) is carefully removed so as not to damage the roots of the plant. Then the leaves are folded and 2 cups of chicken manure are added evenly. On top of the mulch is poured abundantly with water. After a few days (2-3 days), the future humus is covered with soil. So, the trees themselves "feed." In addition, in the cold season, fallen leaves will protect the plant from frost.
• If there is no need to enrich the soil with useful substances, and the "golden" decoration interferes, you can call on the lawn mower. It will crush the showered leaves, which till spring alone “feed up” the soil. Just need to remove the basket from the lawn mower.

Hardwood mulch is a good fertilizer that enriches the soil and loosens it. And one more undoubted advantage: thanks to humus, it is possible to “entice” insect-eating birds and hedgehogs, which will save them from annoying pests (for example, from a bear).

Autumn is the most colorful time of the year: trees sparkle with all colors and cast in gold. Each of us tries to enjoy in the garden for the remaining warm days. And everything would be fine if it were not for the leaves, which after the first cold nights, fall massively from the trees, covering the ground with a thick multi-colored carpet. Many gardeners are desperately asking: “What to do with all this multicolor? Leave it on the ground or take it away? ”Don't panic: there are lots of ways to rationally use fallen leaves even in a small garden.

Leaf mulch is good for plants.

It is a good mulch for all plants that naturally grow in the forest or at the edge of the forest. Having a leafy layer of mulch, they bloom in full force, as this corresponds to their living conditions in their natural habitat. During the new garden season, the leaves decompose and enrich the earth with humus. By the way, such “people from the forest”, like raspberry and strawberry, also react positively to the leaf cover in the root zone.

Composting fallen leaves - how does it happen?

For special needs to mix as many different types of leaves. How quickly leaves will decompose depends on the type of tree. The leaves of linden, alder, beech, ash, birch, and hazelnut quickly decompose. If you mix branches and pour a few shovels of the finished compost, you can prevent the leaves from sticking together. To lay a compost pile, dry and wet leaves of different tree species are mixed. Pre-crushing leaves contributes to better composting.

  To decompose as soon as possible, do not let the leaves caking; loosen them to saturate them with air.

Hard decaying foliage

The decomposition of foliage with a high content of tannins or coarse leaves, for example, from chestnut, poplar, walnut or sycamore, can be accelerated by mixing them with wood chips or mowed grass. Fresh herbs contain a lot of nitrogen, which contributes to good reproduction of microorganisms and the rapid decomposition of autumn foliage, poor in nutrients. If the lawn mowing season is over, take a regular compost ripening accelerator. Straw chopping provides good aeration of the mixture, which also contributes to the acceleration of composting. In conclusion, the leaves are covered with a layer of garden soil and constantly maintain moisture. In the spring, the compost is shoveled, shifted from one section to another, and by the fall it will be completely ready.

  Oak leaves decompose slowly

Leaf humus is an effective means of soil improvement

Usually for the ripening of leaf humus takes a year. Although humus does not contain nutrients, it is excellent for improving the quality of the soil for all plants that prefer a loose, humus-rich base. In addition, floribudna roses can be folded with sheet compost to protect them in the winter from damage caused by frost.

Oak leaves for rhododendrons

If the leaves of hornbeam and linden decompose fairly quickly, then in oak due to the high content of tannins this process takes more than one year. Therefore, it is better to use fresh fallen oak leaves for mulching rhododendrons. During decomposition, the leaves secrete acid, which helps to reduce the pH value in the soil - these are ideal conditions for rhododendrons and other garden crops that do not tolerate too high pH levels of the soil.

Wire Mesh Leaf Cap

Flower beds covered with fallen leaves, and all the containers for compost are filled to the top? Then buy a few meters of wire mesh in a building supermarket and connect its ends with floristic wire so that you have a bulky basket.

It can be put in the garden and used as a container for storing leaves. The layer of leaves, decomposing and under its weight, will gradually subside, so despite the fact that you have filled the basket to the top, after a while a lot of room will be free for new leaves.

The better to remove fallen leaves

While the romantics, watching the circling of autumn leaves, languidly sigh and indulge in dreams, practical gardeners take up the brooms and go to restore order in their plot. But technical progress does not stand still, and convenient manual and sheet blowers have come to replace the hand tool. Despite all the advantages of the modern fall foliage technology, many Environmental Protection Unions, such as NABU, the German Nature Conservation Association, warn gardeners against the constant use of garden vacuum cleaners, which, above all, have a lethal effect on beneficial insects. According to the NABU newsletter, the speed of air absorption by a sheet blower is up to 160 km per hour. And the subsequent shredding function is deadly for beneficial insects that were on the fallen leaves and were shredded with them.

The air flow can be drawn and thrown through the nozzle, not only bugs, spiders and woodlice, but also frogs and small hedgehogs. According to the research of the Union of Conservation of Bavaria, many of these animals have an important ecological significance for the soil. The absence of small animals and foliage can lead to depletion of the edaphone - a complex of soil-dwelling organisms - and prevent the formation of humus. In addition, due to the complete elimination of the foliage and remnants of the vegetation, beneficial insects, hedgehogs and larvae of butterflies lose the shelter, which is so necessary for them in the winter.

According to the Union of Conservation of Bavaria, the use of a garden blower to clean roads, entrances to the garage, and streets causes certain problems. During suction, small dust particles that contain soot, as well as cancer-causing carcinogens that get into the atmosphere when the tires of cars are worn out and which we breathe, are lifted into the air along with the leaves.

Therefore, environmentalists advise whenever possible to abandon the use of garden vacuum cleaners and blowers and recommend to collect foliage “in the old fashioned way” - with a broom or a rake. So, in flower beds, between bushes, you can collect leaves using special fan rakes, which do not damage neighboring plants, on the terraces, paths and other flat surfaces, it is convenient to collect leaves with a broom. One of the main advantages of leaf assembly with “old-fashioned” hand tools is that they can work in wet weather, which is not uncommon in the fall, which cannot be said about garden blowers that work with wet foliage completely inefficient.

If you would like to use a garden vacuum cleaner or blower, environmentalists recommend choosing electric models that are much quieter than models with a gasoline engine. This will spare the nerves of the neighbors and the peace of your family.

Expert Thomas Oberst from the German expert organization TÜV Süd, headquartered in Munich, advises when buying a garden vacuum cleaner to pay attention to the size of the bag. It should be easy to install, have a large hole, so that the amateur gardener can conveniently empty the contents. The bag should be 40-45 liters. A small bag will have to be emptied more often, and too big will cause inconvenience during work.

Translation: Lesya V.
  specifically for the Internet portal
  Garden Center "Your Garden"

Autumn leaf fall saddens gardeners with additional hassle. Many do not know how to properly use this valuable raw material. Humus from the leaves is an ideal tool for the garden, flower garden and garden. Read about what leaves to collect, how to lay and apply the finished substrate.

Leafy ground

  The rotted leaves are called leafy ground. This product is considered to be nutritious and easy for plant growth, indispensable in complex mixtures for garden and garden crops, and is also highly valued by growers. It is added in the amount of 20-80% of the total amount of soil.

It takes two years to produce quality leafy land; if you are satisfied with the rough structure, you can use it in six months. The place for foliage is chosen in the depth of the garden, where no work is planned. Collected leaves are placed in high heaps, about a meter. The process of complete decay continues for a long time and requires moisture. To obtain uniformity and enhance rot, it is desirable to double-shovel.

Experts do not recommend using a chestnut and oak leaf to create such humus. Since the concentration of tannins slows decomposition. In the future, the humus from these leaves has a negative effect on the state of the roots and is of little use for garden plants. Also, leaves that are affected by fungal and other infections should not be used.

Virtues of leafy ground

  When foliar humus is added to the soil, its structure improves and the nutritional composition increases. The earth, flavored with a similar product, breathes well, promotes the supply of moisture to the roots, prevents the soil from drying out, protects plants from frost, helps to survive drought.

Unripe leaf humus is a valuable compost additive, an ideal medium for earthworms. Transforming fallen leaves into fertilizer, the gardener gets rid of the need to remove and burn foliage. Leaf ground is a natural acidifier that allows you to refuse to buy peat, bought to improve the composition of the soil.

Bookmark leaves

  Folding can be stored in different ways: metal mesh constructions are created, plastic containers are used. A completely simple way is plastic bags sold for garden waste. The bag is tightly packed with collected leaves, tied, several punctures are made on the surface.

The main condition for production is the use of well-hydrated foliage. If during the gathering of raw materials there is dry weather, then at the moment of laying it is necessary to water and leave the container / bag open, then to further moisturize, pouring water. To accelerate decomposition, it is recommended to combine leaves with green grass / tops.

Capacity for leaf humus

  An efficient way to produce leafy humus is mesh construction. You will need a fine mesh, wooden bars or metal pipes, staples / wires, wire cutters, a hammer.

The building is usually located under the trees or in a place where it can be moistened without harming the neighboring plants. Capacity is created as a cube. The size is kept within 50-70 cm, h - 120. The columns are deepened by about 30 cm. The grid is attached to the first support with brackets or wire in 3-4 places, then rolled out to the second column - fixed. And so consistently closes on the first support, forming a mesh box. The excess mesh is cut off with pliers, protruding tips, in order to avoid injuries, should be bent with a hammer.

Use of leaf humus

Young humus is obtained in 6-12 months. It has a coarse structure with remains of a skeleton / leaf stalk. It is used as an additive for soil mixtures of open ground and container plantings. The product is relevant for mulching, making garden compost, lawn repair.

Aged humus has been cooking for about 2 years. Represents a homogeneous crumbly mass, dark color. Such a substrate is good for seed germination and seedling production. Together with fine-grained sand / loam, garden compost, leafy ground is ideal for growing indoor plants. In its pure form, it is applied to hydrangeas, rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, heathers, pieris and other acidophiles, preferring acidic soil.