Composting Broad-leaves

• Broad leaved trees produce prodigious volumes of leaves in Autumn.
• Their leaves should be composted or rotted separately to other garden waste. They can take upto 2 years to decompose properly.
• It is worth persevering because they make an excellent soil conditioner.
• The leaves will decompose in punctured plastic bags or a custom made leaf bin.
• Often these custom made leaf composters are made with a simple wire mesh.
• The advantage of using open bins is that they enable worms to enter and help the process of decomposition. It is important to have 2 bins / bags on the go at the same time, as they will not be ready in less than 1 year.

Accelerators for Composting Leaves.

• It is possible to buy a special liquid which helps to speed up the process of decomposition. These accelerators are worth adding as they will speed up the process.
• Basically, these accelerators help add nitrogen to the leaves.
• If you have access to manure adding it to leaves will work very effectively.
• Even accelerated decomposition will not increase the nutritional value.
• Oak Chestnut and conifer leaves take far longer to rot down than others. I keep leaves as separate as is practical as my Acers rot quickly and can be used around my Rhododendrons to good effect.

See composting accelerators.

Digging in Half-composted Leaves.

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to decompose leaves, you can simply add them at the bottom of a trench and then add soil, they will naturally disintegrate over time.
Worms are crucial to the decomposition and are also good for your soil conditioning.
It is far better to collect the leaves than leave them on your lawn.

Tips on Making Leaf Mold Easily

• Rake your leaves together into a pile. Bits of soil, grass and a variety of leaves are not a problem but make the pile predominantly leaves.
• Put the leaves in a wire cage cover and leave to rot. alternatively put the leaves into a large plastic bag and puncture to allow air to enter.
• Leaves should be damp and can be lightly watered but not left soggy. The rotting will not create heat like normal compost and decomposition will be slow.
• The volume of leaf mold will be a tenth of the leaf pile you started with.
• Conifers and evergreen leaves will take three years to compost and are best added in small quantities.
• Shredding leaves or chopping with a lawnmower first helps to speed up composting.
• Do not include nuts or tree seeds
• Burn any diseased leaves and avoid honey fungus