Custom leaf mulch

Judith Adam

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Treasure autumn leaves; they're an important source of nutrients for the garden. (Garden Making photo)

Yes, I’m writing about leaves again. The shushing sounds you hear are leaves detaching from branches and falling to the ground. What are you going to do about that? I certainly hope you’ll get right out there and sweep them into the beds. Leaves are an important source of organic fibre that feeds worms and soil organisms, and eventually becomes nutrients for next year’s plants. Every kind of leaf has value when it’s returned to the earth, either as an amendment dug into planting holes and vegetable beds, or as a carpet of thick mulch over exposed soil. When leaves are cleaned off from the beds and taken away from the garden, what you have left are starving plants. You don’t want to be responsible for that, do you?

Treasure autumn leaves; they're an important source of nutrients for the garden. (Garden Making photo)
Treasure autumn leaves; they’re an important source of nutrients for the garden. (Garden Making photo)

Being an enthusiast of autumn leaf collection, I’m fussy about customizing my leaf mulch to suit individual plant groups in designated beds. Birch leaves are thin and when thoroughly dry, they crumble into a golden, small-particle mulch for beds with low-growing, delicate plants. My method is to fill a garbage bag half full of thoroughly dry and crisp birch leaves (don’t seal the top), lay it on a hard surface (the driveway), and wearing soft-soled shoes or slippers, shuffle all over it. This sufficiently shatters the leaves into smaller pieces, and several bags of leaves processed in this way become the mulch for my bed of hellebores, ferns and cyclamen. I highly recommend this method for making small batches of fine mulch. (I hope you won’t mind if this attracts some attention from passersby.)

In the back garden are wide shrub borders, and for many years my neighbour’s mature locust tree provided generous mulch, falling directly onto the beds. Locust has compound leaflets suspended on a narrow and slightly bowed stem. These are just about the most perfect leaf for mulching purposes.  (Leaves from mountain ash trees would also be similarly useful.)  The small sections of leaf tissue are ideal for making a smooth mulch that won’t blow around in wind. Unfortunately, the tree has been taken down, causing a big shock for me and the garden, and now I’m seriously short of leaves. I’ve recently planted three English oaks (Quercus robur, Zone 5) with small leaves, but they aren’t producing enough yet. What to do?

Here’s my strategy: I’ve noticed a street in my neighbourhood that has been planted with a long line of locust trees. These are boulevard trees planted by the municipality, and their leaves fall on sidewalks, front lawns and driveways. I knocked on some doors and found kindly neighbours who will allow me to rake their lawns, and take whatever amount of leaves they don’t want. This took a bit of explaining, and when I get busy with my rake and bags, I expect to see faces peeking from behind the curtains. I hope, with this revelation, they’ll actually want to keep some of the leaves for their own beds. Next year, my neighbours may be wiser and not so generous with their leaves, which means I’ll have to look further afield.

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10 thoughts on “Custom leaf mulch”

  1. Hi Beverley (Jan. 28),

    Yes, I did find a product containing shrimp compost combined with peat moss at an Ontario garden centre. I was really surprised to find it, and will definitely use it. Thanks!

    — Judith

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  2. Hi Judith. Just a “tad” late replying to the info on shrimp manure. I have been using this primarily for my veggie gardens and mix it with potting soil for my summer potted flowers. Use to get old horse or cow manure, but it’s a lot of dirty work getting it to the house. I am just west of Montreal, in the country. Don’t know if shrimp manure is sold in Ontario? I am glad to have provided you with a useful suggestion. Looking into all the new catalogues. Getting spring fever, and looking forward to visiting Canada Blooms in March! Take care,

    Reply
  3. Hi again, Beverley,

    Thanks so much for introducing me to a new (to me!) organic material – shrimp compost. I had a look around the Internet to learn about it, and find that it’s a good source of calcium. That would be especially useful for fruiting vegetables, like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I’m so glad you mentioned this material!
    — Judith

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  4. Hi Judith,
    Just getting back to your helpful advice… Does seem to be some confusion between myself and another reader, but nothing to worry about.

    I love your suggestion to first spread my grass/leaf clippings on my beds, topped with (for me) will be shrimp compost if I can still buy some. Had a very busy fall, and haven’t been able to spend the time on my gardens as I would like! So, as we say here in Quebec, “au pire aller” i.e. “at the worst”, I can easily spread my first mixture and do the rest next year. At least my perennials will have a good start next spring!

    I so appreciate all your comments and personalized responses. Thanks so much. Already making plans for next year’s beds!!

    Reply
  5. Hello Beverley,

    You’ve accumulated some useful organic materials to work with. Grass clippings and leaves are ideal for mulching, used together or separately. For instance, I use leaves alone, because that’s what I have (clippings are left on my lawn through the growing season). If you mix them together, and then add commercial compost (do you mean composted animal manure from a bag?), the mix becomes richer. Yes, it would be fine for mulching beds, and whatever organic mulch you use, it should remain in place permanently until it has degraded and disappeared. (You don’t need additional earth in the mix, unless your beds are sunken and low.) In spring, the mulch you apply now will have lowered and compressed, and won’t blow around. Just leave it in place, and by next autumn you’ll need to renew it.

    If you have sufficient leaves and grass clippings to make enough mulch for your beds, that alone would be sufficient. But certainly adding compost of any kind (vegetative garden materials or manure) is a valuable nutrition boost. It might save you some labour to roughly spread the compost on the soil surface, and then spread the mulch material over that. But however you do it, you’re adding new life to the soil, and you’ll have improved plant performance.

    Look forward to a lovely garden next year!
    — Judith

    Reply
  6. Hello Judith. I am intrigued with the use of leaves as mulch. Over the summer, I dumped grass clippings and now grass/leaf clippings into a pile. If I were to add earth and commercial compost and mix, would this be a suitable mulch for my gardens over the winter?? As I have neither mulched or added anything to my gardens for years???!! Also, do I leave this mulch concoction on my beds in the spring when I clean up, so they continue to rot and presumably make more nutrients for the beds??
    Thanks for your great ideas/suggestions… love to read your articles.

    Reply
  7. Hello Kim,
    Well, you have a challenging problem. Gardening on a slope is always difficult, and I guess you’ve got lots of wind from off the water complicating it. I don’t know what kind of ornamental plants you might already have growing on the slope, and I’m reluctant to recommend anything that spreads rapidly and, once established, is impossible to get out.

    I’m not experienced with eel grass, but research indicates it needs to grow in about six inches (15 cm) of water, and that wouldn’t suit your conditions. Two ornamental spreading ground covers that produce flowers and lots of low foliage are Japanese spurge (Ajuga reptans) and lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), and both are hardy to Zone 4.

    But if you have the advantage of making your own chipped mulch, perhaps spread it again, and cover the mulch with conifer branches to keep it in place over winter. (You could even put a brick on each branch, to insure it will stay in place.) You’ll just need to find a source for the conifer branches, or wait until the first week of January and gather used Christmas trees from the roadside, strip the branches off and lay them over your mulched hillside. You’ll certainly be needing a warm fireside after that!
    — Judith

    Reply
  8. Hi Barbara,

    Glad to know I’m not the only “leaf nut” on the block! That’s an easy and effective method for making leaf mold, and I hope others will try it. I’ll be first.
    — Judith

    Reply
  9. Hi Judith – I live on Jeddore Harbour and am trying find a mulch for my sloped garden (replaces a retaining wall) that won’t blow away. We have a chipper that will take up to 5″ trees but the chips all blew away last year. Would I be better off with groundcover? What about eel grass?

    Reply
  10. Hi Judith!
    I had to smile at this blog because I am known on my block for raking other people’s lawns and sidewalks to obtain more leaves for mulch. We have several very large silver maples on the block, with street parking. The crushed leaves from the cars make a lovely fine mulch. I put my leaves into black garbage bags, damp them down, place under my porch for the winter, and by the next spring have lovely leaf mold which I add to my compost bins.
    I love the magazine!

    Reply

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