One of the best amendments to your garden. It is so versatile. I make loads each year and would never be without it. Great video Scott. More people should make this
I go to where the local university dumps their leaves. There is a pile of old leaves that is literally big as my house. I can fill the bed of my truck with leaf mold in 15 minutes that goes in my flower and raised beds. Incredible how much stuff goes unused by people who have no idea of what they're throwing away.
In my area, we have to maintain “defensible space” to prevent the spread of fire. I have to hire a service to do this for me. I asked the men who were doing the work what they were going to do with the branches and leaves that they were loading into a trailer. They said that they were going to take them to the dump. I asked them to put the branches and some of the leaves into a hugelkultur bed, and the rest into a container for leaf mold. They liked the idea so much that they now say that they do the same at their homes. Gardening can be wonderfully contagious. (Of course, I also told them about the Gardener Scott Channel)
I LOVE making dirt this way! "Black gold" indeed! I add the fluid that collects in the containers under our two "wet compost barrels"; some call it "compost tea" - I just don't want it to go to waste. I love the smell of the composted leaves. It is lovely stuff!
I take my fall leaves and put it in a fence just like yours in the fall here in N.Y also. What I do with mine is put it on the bottom of all my flower pots because its not fully broken down yet and put my store bought soil right on top then plant. Saves me so much money on potting mix.
I started making leaf mold in Fall of 2020 but didn't have your patience so used it mostly as mulch in spring of 2021 and this year. The leaves only slightly decompose after 7-8 months. I was lucky to find 2 very large pallet shipping boxes for free on Facebook Market Place. I have one box left with leaves from last year and will now force myself to leave until next spring! I want to see my leaves look like your black gold. Beautiful!
In fall of 2020 I made my first batch of leaf mold. I had the two 3' bins under a tree and kept them moist. I turned it once in late July 2021 to get the top and side leaves inside the pile. It was done in late October, I got three totes full. Fantastic stuff, where I used it this spring the plants are doing great. Last fall I built two pallet bins, 4'x4'x4' and packed them with maple leaves and topped them a few times. I will turn them next month. I hope to double what I made last year. With my compost I should be able to avoid buying any bagged compost next spring.
@@raczyk For making leaf mold a few holes in the bottom should do if you are using storage bins. Plastic garbage cans are good as well, the plastic is treated so it doesnt break down in the sun like totes often do. You dont want the leaves to dry out so the fungus that breaks the leaves down has a good environment to keep it alive. I made my first bins from wire fence pieces I had and they were 3 feet wide, and they kept drying out. I had to water it a lot. So far love the leaf mold as a soil amendment. It helps that I live in a tree lined town, great free resource. Last year I didnt buy any bagged compost leaving money to spend on other things.
I rake leaves out of the 80 acres of land behind our house for the garden and the driveway base to hold in the rain. We have sandy soil here in South Carolina
Ended up with almost 50 gallons of leaf mold last fall. I used it as a seed starter, incorporated into my potting soil and used a lot in my grow bags. When I replanted some grass where the sweet potato vines killed the grass, I used leaf mold as a mulch over the grass seed, I have never had grass grow so quickly and as full. Double shredding the leaves really speeds up the process, the leaf mold I started last fall is nearly completely broken down (I did insulate the pile with bagged leaves on the sides and top over winter, this spring I found it only froze down about 8") Another huge benefit is under the microscope, it is loaded with nematodes and beneficial fungi plus in my area loaded with earthworms, native and escapees from my worm bins. I am hooked on leaf mold
I am starting one this fall. We have neighbors with big poplar trees and every year I would take all those leaves that fall into our yard and bag it and throw some and put some into the in ground soil for the garden. I never would have thought to do this. It’s like the forest as the leaves lay untouched . We end up with about 6 or more big black bags full of leaves every year. I wish I would have started this years ago! I am so excited to start this process. What a beautiful way to use what has been given to us!
Leaf mold is what I have been using to replace peat moss. I use an electric Worx leaf vac/mulcher that reduces the leaves into 1/4" to 1/2" size flakes, and my turnover time is reduced to about a year. Sometimes, I toss in Starbucks spent coffee grounds on the larger piles. Last year while turning my oak leaves, I uncovered a basketball sized air pocket that had what looked like big Portabella sized mushrooms in it. It was as brown as the oak leaves.
I love that you can use this to replace peat moss! This is one of my goals! I have been visiting coffee shops and I have 1 starbucks that is pretty good about giving away spent grounds but last week someone beat me to it!! I imagine coffee ground/leaf/kitchen scrap compost could be ready quite a bit sooner so I was hoping to score as many grounds as possible.
going to try this! if i can get a coffee shop to give me their spent grounds! our local starbucks is the only one that will separate it from the trash and people are beating me to it!
@Maggie Scalf Great stuff, gl scoring some grounds! Can get a ton from coffee shops O_O if you have any QT gas stations, might ask someone there. They are typically chill and will allow you to harvest some grounds. Grow long friend!
I had a bunch of woodchips as mulch in front of my house, after a few years of breaking down, some plant i put in it went crazy. So im sold. Ill try this one so its faster
Awesome advice! I use leaves in my compost mixed with grass clippings. I let them sit for a year with a few turnings. Then just use as a mulch on top of my vegetable garden… I haven’t needed fertilizer in years.
Just out enjoying the garden today and listening to to videos like this one and thinking about how much of a luxury it is to be able to do what I'm doing right now. Its a beautiful day and I'm thinking about how I can improve my system while I go about tending the garden. Its a good day! Thank you as always for your calm and informative videos, I look forward to them.
I saved a bunch of leaves for mulch in the same way and didn't even know I was inadvertently making leaf mold. I will be harvesting this going forward! Thanks as always GS!
Ok...I am doing leaf mold. I have 7 Maple trees on my property that are 60 to 100 feet tall. Every autumn I have leaves an inch deep over my quarter acre. Got a cage built...half full already.
I'm currently digging trenches through some tough clay soil in Upstate NY on 2nd year gardening. This summer baked it very hard and plants struggled. We'll see how 1 of every 3 ft works mixing a layer of leaves, some wood chipped mulch topped with dark composted soil free from Rochester give back site. That should help feed the soil and loosen it up. The leaf mold will be hastened with all the worms a sort of in ground composting. See how it goes and thanks for the advice to make more above ground in fencing.
Awesome stuff gardener Scott! I'm fortunate enough to have many trees and each fall I stock pile a lot of leaves. The next summer I use many for mulch or mixing with greens in my compost piles but at the end of the summer there is rich dark leaf mold at the bottom of the pile. Although it's probably not decomposed completely, it's great for amending my beds in the fall. Composting used to be just a chore for me but I've learned to enjoy it as a fun part of gardening.
I filled a large tote with dry leaves that I raked up last fall and I add several large handfuls to my compost bin when I add coffee grounds or kitchen scraps.
For another way to greatly speed up the rate of decomposition, consider growing mushrooms in the leaves. Last year I noticed some large pinkish-brown mushrooms fruiting from the leaves I was composting. It turned out these were wood blewits, or Clitocybe nuda, which are known to grow on oak leaves, and are also a choice edible. You can actually order spawning kits for these, and other useful garden mushrooms like wine caps, which prefer to grow in wood chips. This will both release more nutrients for your plants, and leave you with some home grown gourmet mushrooms in the fall.
Your leaf mold looks fantastic - rich, BLACK, compost! Nutrients for the plants and no weed seeds! Thanks for the tips on how to proceeds and the length of time involved. Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA
Patience is the key! I'm blessed to now be at a continuous flow of leaf mold! Best stuff ever! Thank you for affirming that my process and garden usage is on the money! Be well Gardener Scott!
For me Patience came with age. Now I am not into banana and tapioca and rejuvenating spices. Just tending nutmeg, betel nut, cashew, coconut drumsticks and ancient fruit trees. I have so many piles of leaves molding lazily by itself. I do spray while irrigating. The ones that do require work in perforated sacks (lazy there too as forget to water every other week and never top up) are tamarind and drumstick leaves. Coffee grounds help here more to inoculate the accidental charcoal. I cheat with a handful of ash too twice, to rid it off those stinging ants. Not pure leaf mold but powdery in three months without need to strain. Give it to neighbors after the saplings in them have rooted.
Fantastic video Scott. Up here in Canada, zone 5b / 6a (depending on the year), I've got a big pile of leaves from last year. So was super useful to see how to harvest and the time to harvest. Thank you.
I never realized that "black gold" I was harvesting from the property was called Leaf Mold. I have free range chickens that roost in several trees. I rake the top leaves off the surface and harvest the rich black gold underneath.
Wore out many a pair of leather gloves sifting compost over hardware cloth. What I use now is a piece of 3/8" hardware cloth curved about 1/2" over a 2X4 about 10" long. It really saves on expensive leather gloves. Gotta be on the watch for worms.
I just mix the chicken manure in with it and its ready in the spring .I use leaves for catching the manure and its pretty rich . I think alot of people are doing that , have to thank yutube for that .I want to try vermi compost next , when I find time to do it .
I put the leaves in a separate bay in the autumn, and after a year mix it in with the compost of that year. This way the leaves get about 18 months to decompose, first on their own, followed by 6 months combined with regular compost.
I was so excited about this one. Just finished building my two Forever beds. Used leaf mulch on the bottom. Compost on top, then potting soil. My first go round with leaf mulch. Love it. Can’t wait until the round ones are back in stock. Hopefully July? Thank you for your wisdom. Blessings!
Thanks for showing this follow up video of the lead mold. I used a lot of lead mold for my tomato and purple onion bed because I didn’t have enough compost. Yup yearly piles is a game changer, thanks for the tip Gardener Scott.
Leaves are free and one of the best amendments that you can make. By far the best bang for your efforts. Keep it simple. I use them as mulch for paths between plants during the spring, then at the end of the year, it gets worked into the soil for the next year. works for us I am not hauling bags of mulch from the ag co.
I ordered a Geobin compost bin shortly after I saw this video and this fall I filled it to the brim with leaves that had been run over and chopped up with my mower. The Geobin holds approx 220 gallons of material and to try to speed up the process I decided to experiment. I added a light covering of fresh grass clippings to each eight or so inches of leaves and watered frequently. I was shocked to see that a couple of days after filling the Geobin the center of the pile got up to 140 degrees. I'm in Indiana and to try to keep the pile from freezing I've been adding coffee grounds and other "greens" to the center of the pile and even when the out side temp was in the mid teens the core of the pile hasn't dropped below 110. I've kept the pile watered and have the top covered with a few layers of cardboard and a tarp to try to hold in the moisture and hopefully the heat as well. I'm hoping to use the finished product as a replacement for the peat moss I've been using in my self watering container mix. Many thanks for inspiring me to try this out!
It sounds like you are making compost with the greens and high heat. Leaf mold is made at cooler temperatures and is a fungal decomposition. Are leaf mold and leaf compost interchangeable?? Hmmm, I don't know.
Our Boulder, CO., soil has little organic material; as an experiment I collected bags of leaves (maple, mostly) around the neighborhood & scattered the leaves, as is, everywhere in the plantings - an inch or so as available. This spring the leaves hadn't fully broken down, but the plants were way better than previously. I left the leaves in place this spring and plan to add leaves again this fall!
Love it! I have a bunch of leaves to process this week, I'll be using some to make fertilizer and I will make a video. I have about four in my que but I'm having some issues so it might take a few days but they'll be up soon! Not giving up! God bless 💯🌿🌼🙏😀👍🌼🌿🌱🌻🌷🌾🌿🌱🐝💮🥀
I’ve been doing that for about eight years now with 25 Oak in Naples in my yard I get the biggest nicest fattest worms and the richest most wonderful soil no bag stuff for this girl I’m doing dual work where can leaves and making dirt my husband calls me the queen of making do lol great video
I would love to be able to make lead mold. Unfortunately where I live we don’t have regular trees with leaves bet would work. It’s all cedar or live oak with the thick waxy leaves that don’t break down well.
Oak leaves make great leaf mold, they just take a little more prep to get anything in a timely matter. Running them through a leaf shredder or mowing and bagging them a few times will break the leaf cuticle enough to kick start the decomp.
I read somewhere that leaf mold is a great additive for comfrey/weed tea fertilizer as well. It adds some additional biology to the mixture and assists with breaking down things more quickly. I've added a handfull to the batches I have fermenting now. Not sure how much it helps but I'm sure that it can't hurt.
When I had buffaloes I used to ferment dry and pruned leaves too in the dung pit. Now I have only goats (due to age) and still that pit is used without goat dung. The water logging was due to six months of monsoon. Just before the next monsoon, I have compost. Fermenting is not so bad, as such.
I think that would be considered compost rather than leaf mold but it's a great way to get quick compost. Tried mixing only leaves and grass for the first time this year and it worked really well. I do lazy composting and finally getting a hot pile (since the leaves and grass are so easy to turn) was pretty exciting 😄.
Are you able to accelerate that decomposition process by turning it like regular compost? Is there added benefit to just letting it naturally decompose?
Turning may accelerate it slightly if it's compacted, but that can disturb the fungal growth. Shredding the leaves is one option for accelerating the decomposition..
I have a bin twice that size. Sat for 2 years and I started using it this year. But underneath is just masses of fine roots. Very difficult to harvest the bottom layer. Maybe I shouldn't have built it in the woods. I had no black gold.
Garner Scott, love learning from your videos. I'm new at this gardening procedure so I have a question. I have an in ground garden. I planted tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, green bell peppers, couple of spice plants, swiss chard. Question, now that they have finished producing, should I just till everything with the tiller for next year. Or what do I do? Appreciate your advice.
Can you continue to add to the pile as is reduces until it stops shrinking to wind up with that much more or would that stretch the time it takes to be usable to years? I also wonder what the comparison is between this method and building a Johnson-Su Bioreactor? Do you chop up the leaves 1st?
You can add continually, but expect the bottom to decompose earlier than the top. The key difference in a Jognson-Su bioreactor is the use of tubes to introduce oxygen to the process.
Thank you so much for this video! Couple questions, I have been making these enclosures for my leaves for years but don't find this much breakdown. I wet the piles initially but I don't repeat too too much. Am I stacking my leaves too high and/or not wetting enough? Am realizing they are someone sheltered so the rain doesn't get them too much. I hate to disassemble my cages because of the mess on top (the most recent fall oak leaves), but I know the lower levels are 3-years old. I think I just need to accept the mess that this will be and get it done. 😅
I was having dill pickles contest with my sister and planted 5 packs which is about 70 cucumber plants of Straight 8' s up a triangle trellis like tee pee and have 6 foot cucumber tree in July. I'm having trouble cause it turned into Jungle. Literally. It's 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall and keeps growing. So far I only have 3 female flowers,1 baby cucumber,and 1000 male flowers and I killed 8 yellow jacket nests that were killing my honey bees. I hope I get good crap but my dad which has farmed 80 plus years said he'll be surprised if I do.
Thank you Gardener Scott. I know some people break the leaves down using a mower. I only have a string mower. Is there a way to break the leaves down using a string mower before starting the composting process?
For collecting leaves is jt safe to collect next to farms or from peoples laws (which are collected in bags already)? How would i know if the leaves did not absorb any herbicides off the farm sprraying or lawn care?
I like to ask the homeowner first before I take their bags to find out about whether herbicides or pesticides were used nearby. Herbicides are rarely an issue on tree leaves, but it is possible they can hold residue.
@@GardenerScott I'd imiagine hermicide can be ued on lawns, would falled leaves then possibly absorb the remaining herbicide in the lawn? What about farmers spraying nearby farms? Any chance of those making it into the leaves?
What is the nitrogen content? You alluded to nitrogen/carbon balance needed in compost. But is leaf mold nitrogen deficient, being all carbon input? My garden is very nitrogen deficient right now I think because I used a ton of leaves and wood chips as mulch and some of that got mixed into the soil during planting.
Chop and drop is your friend! Grass clippings put on your garden right after mowing, weeds pulled from the garden (you can cut roots if you want to make sure they don't accidentally regrow) and leaf and/or plant matter that you prune off of the plants you are growing. All of these will help add more nitrogen back into your soil. Good luck. :)
Wouldn't the rain wash away a lot of potential nutrients into the ground? Would putting these in some type of garbage/55-gallon barrel be better so one could syphon off the "juice" and use it?
Not all nutrients leach out but some will. I like to use this method to help improve the soil underneath for a future bed in that spot. A barrel can help retain them.
I think it’s unnecessary to screen and make a big deal out of what is basically a natural and easy process. Throw the leaves on your garden or on a pile and they’ll break down just fine. This is making a lot of extra work and over complicating an easy way to improve soil.
The screening was done in this video because he specifically plans to use the finer material in seed starting and potting mix. He clearly said it was not necessary to screen it if using it as a soil amendment.
One of the best amendments to your garden. It is so versatile. I make loads each year and would never be without it. Great video Scott. More people should make this
Me too! It’s black gold! You can’t buy this in the store!! Been doing it for years!!
I go to where the local university dumps their leaves. There is a pile of old leaves that is literally big as my house. I can fill the bed of my truck with leaf mold in 15 minutes that goes in my flower and raised beds. Incredible how much stuff goes unused by people who have no idea of what they're throwing away.
In my area, we have to maintain “defensible space” to prevent the spread of fire. I have to hire a service to do this for me. I asked the men who were doing the work what they were going to do with the branches and leaves that they were loading into a trailer. They said that they were going to take them to the dump. I asked them to put the branches and some of the leaves into a hugelkultur bed, and the rest into a container for leaf mold. They liked the idea so much that they now say that they do the same at their homes. Gardening can be wonderfully contagious. (Of course, I also told them about the Gardener Scott Channel)
I can get almost unlimited supplies of leaf mold in the forest surrounding my home. It's just labor intensive to gather.
I LOVE making dirt this way! "Black gold" indeed! I add the fluid that collects in the containers under our two "wet compost barrels"; some call it "compost tea" - I just don't want it to go to waste. I love the smell of the composted leaves. It is lovely stuff!
We have gotten 25 truck loads of mulch from the tree service but the leaves break down nicely.
I like using both
I take my fall leaves and put it in a fence just like yours in the fall here in N.Y also. What I do with mine is put it on the bottom of all my flower pots because its not fully broken down yet and put my store bought soil right on top then plant. Saves me so much money on potting mix.
I built it Scott. Now I have got to fill it up. My neighbor said he'd trade me leaves for squash this fall. Win Win perfect timing
I started making leaf mold in Fall of 2020 but didn't have your patience so used it mostly as mulch in spring of 2021 and this year.
The leaves only slightly decompose after 7-8 months.
I was lucky to find 2 very large pallet shipping boxes for free on Facebook Market Place.
I have one box left with leaves from last year and will now force myself to leave until next spring! I want to see my leaves look like your black gold. Beautiful!
In fall of 2020 I made my first batch of leaf mold. I had the two 3' bins under a tree and kept them moist. I turned it once in late July 2021 to get the top and side leaves inside the pile. It was done in late October, I got three totes full. Fantastic stuff, where I used it this spring the plants are doing great. Last fall I built two pallet bins, 4'x4'x4' and packed them with maple leaves and topped them a few times. I will turn them next month. I hope to double what I made last year. With my compost I should be able to avoid buying any bagged compost next spring.
Thinking of using tote storage bins myself. How many holes does the bin need for air? Like what percentage of the wall would be holes?
@@raczyk For making leaf mold a few holes in the bottom should do if you are using storage bins. Plastic garbage cans are good as well, the plastic is treated so it doesnt break down in the sun like totes often do. You dont want the leaves to dry out so the fungus that breaks the leaves down has a good environment to keep it alive. I made my first bins from wire fence pieces I had and they were 3 feet wide, and they kept drying out. I had to water it a lot. So far love the leaf mold as a soil amendment. It helps that I live in a tree lined town, great free resource. Last year I didnt buy any bagged compost leaving money to spend on other things.
OUTSTANDING ♥️👍
I've got extra chicken wire in the loft of the barn. I know exactly what I'm making tomorrow.
Pure genius Scott
I collect as many bags as possible every Fall now. It’s such a good free resource.
I rake leaves out of the 80 acres of land behind our house for the garden and the driveway base to hold in the rain.
We have sandy soil here in South Carolina
Thank you Gardener Scott for sharing your knowledge & good will!
Ended up with almost 50 gallons of leaf mold last fall. I used it as a seed starter, incorporated into my potting soil and used a lot in my grow bags.
When I replanted some grass where the sweet potato vines killed the grass, I used leaf mold as a mulch over the grass seed, I have never had grass grow so quickly and as full.
Double shredding the leaves really speeds up the process, the leaf mold I started last fall is nearly completely broken down (I did insulate the pile with bagged leaves on the sides and top over winter, this spring I found it only froze down about 8")
Another huge benefit is under the microscope, it is loaded with nematodes and beneficial fungi plus in my area loaded with earthworms, native and escapees from my worm bins.
I am hooked on leaf mold
Those are great uses for it.
I am starting one this fall. We have neighbors with big poplar trees and every year I would take all those leaves that fall into our yard and bag it and throw some and put some into the in ground soil for the garden. I never would have thought to do this. It’s like the forest as the leaves lay untouched . We end up with about 6 or more big black bags full of leaves every year. I wish I would have started this years ago! I am so excited to start this process. What a beautiful way to use what has been given to us!
I got a $15 metal ring on amazon that fits over a 5 gallon bucket that I use for my compost. I swear it was the best $15 I have ever spent.
Leaf mold is what I have been using to replace peat moss. I use an electric Worx leaf vac/mulcher that reduces the leaves into 1/4" to 1/2" size flakes, and my turnover time is reduced to about a year. Sometimes, I toss in Starbucks spent coffee grounds on the larger piles. Last year while turning my oak leaves, I uncovered a basketball sized air pocket that had what looked like big Portabella sized mushrooms in it. It was as brown as the oak leaves.
I love that you can use this to replace peat moss! This is one of my goals! I have been visiting coffee shops and I have 1 starbucks that is pretty good about giving away spent grounds but last week someone beat me to it!! I imagine coffee ground/leaf/kitchen scrap compost could be ready quite a bit sooner so I was hoping to score as many grounds as possible.
I add coffee grounds to mine as well as a handful of worms from the worm bin, speeds things up considerably!
going to try this! if i can get a coffee shop to give me their spent grounds! our local starbucks is the only one that will separate it from the trash and people are beating me to it!
@Maggie Scalf Great stuff, gl scoring some grounds! Can get a ton from coffee shops O_O if you have any QT gas stations, might ask someone there. They are typically chill and will allow you to harvest some grounds.
Grow long friend!
I had a bunch of woodchips as mulch in front of my house, after a few years of breaking down, some plant i put in it went crazy. So im sold. Ill try this one so its faster
Awesome advice! I use leaves in my compost mixed with grass clippings. I let them sit for a year with a few turnings. Then just use as a mulch on top of my vegetable garden… I haven’t needed fertilizer in years.
Just out enjoying the garden today and listening to to videos like this one and thinking about how much of a luxury it is to be able to do what I'm doing right now. Its a beautiful day and I'm thinking about how I can improve my system while I go about tending the garden. Its a good day! Thank you as always for your calm and informative videos, I look forward to them.
I saved a bunch of leaves for mulch in the same way and didn't even know I was inadvertently making leaf mold. I will be harvesting this going forward! Thanks as always GS!
Ok...I am doing leaf mold. I have 7 Maple trees on my property that are 60 to 100 feet tall. Every autumn I have leaves an inch deep over my quarter acre. Got a cage built...half full already.
I'm currently digging trenches through some tough clay soil in Upstate NY on 2nd year gardening. This summer baked it very hard and plants struggled. We'll see how 1 of every 3 ft works mixing a layer of leaves, some wood chipped mulch topped with dark composted soil free from Rochester give back site. That should help feed the soil and loosen it up. The leaf mold will be hastened with all the worms a sort of in ground composting. See how it goes and thanks for the advice to make more above ground in fencing.
Awesome stuff gardener Scott! I'm fortunate enough to have many trees and each fall I stock pile a lot of leaves. The next summer I use many for mulch or mixing with greens in my compost piles but at the end of the summer there is rich dark leaf mold at the bottom of the pile. Although it's probably not decomposed completely, it's great for amending my beds in the fall. Composting used to be just a chore for me but I've learned to enjoy it as a fun part of gardening.
I filled a large tote with dry leaves that I raked up last fall and I add several large handfuls to my compost bin when I add coffee grounds or kitchen scraps.
For another way to greatly speed up the rate of decomposition, consider growing mushrooms in the leaves. Last year I noticed some large pinkish-brown mushrooms fruiting from the leaves I was composting. It turned out these were wood blewits, or Clitocybe nuda, which are known to grow on oak leaves, and are also a choice edible. You can actually order spawning kits for these, and other useful garden mushrooms like wine caps, which prefer to grow in wood chips. This will both release more nutrients for your plants, and leave you with some home grown gourmet mushrooms in the fall.
That sounds like a good idea. The fungi break down the leaves and getting a harvest of mushrooms is a bonus.
Thank you - So easy to do, and sooo beneficial to the garden. Great reminder
Great video Gardener Scott, I have about one hundred oak trees in my yard, I use the leaves for many things.
Thank you from New Zealand
Your leaf mold looks fantastic - rich, BLACK, compost! Nutrients for the plants and no weed seeds! Thanks for the tips on how to proceeds and the length of time involved. Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA
Great video! Your videos on leaf mold are some of the most comprehensive ones that I've found on the topic. I appreciate the loads of info 👍
Patience is the key! I'm blessed to now be at a continuous flow of leaf mold! Best stuff ever! Thank you for affirming that my process and garden usage is on the money! Be well Gardener Scott!
For me Patience came with age. Now I am not into banana and tapioca and rejuvenating spices. Just tending nutmeg, betel nut, cashew, coconut drumsticks and ancient fruit trees. I have so many piles of leaves molding lazily by itself. I do spray while irrigating. The ones that do require work in perforated sacks (lazy there too as forget to water every other week and never top up) are tamarind and drumstick leaves. Coffee grounds help here more to inoculate the accidental charcoal. I cheat with a handful of ash too twice, to rid it off those stinging ants. Not pure leaf mold but powdery in three months without need to strain. Give it to neighbors after the saplings in them have rooted.
I have a 2 year old pile going now. Great stuff.
Fantastic video Scott. Up here in Canada, zone 5b / 6a (depending on the year), I've got a big pile of leaves from last year. So was super useful to see how to harvest and the time to harvest. Thank you.
I use leaf mould out here in my high-desert garden. The water retention is a big plus here!
I never realized that "black gold" I was harvesting from the property was called Leaf Mold. I have free range chickens that roost in several trees. I rake the top leaves off the surface and harvest the rich black gold underneath.
Making this for sure! We have lots of leaves 🍁 every year! Thanks!
Cool video. I fastened my hardware cloth to 2x4's screwed together in a square setting on edge. Keeps the material confined inside the frame.
Wore out many a pair of leather gloves sifting compost over hardware cloth. What I use now is a piece of 3/8" hardware cloth curved about 1/2" over a 2X4 about 10" long. It really saves on expensive leather gloves. Gotta be on the watch for worms.
Great idea and tutorial. I love your simple uncomplicated and inexpensive style to gardening! Ty I will be starting my pile this autumn.
THANKS FOR THIS INFORMATION
I just mix the chicken manure in with it and its ready in the spring .I use leaves for catching the manure and its pretty rich . I think alot of people are doing that , have to thank yutube for that .I want to try vermi compost next , when I find time to do it .
Nature does this on its own! I go out and harvest some from time to time. I have made it like you have also.
A really amazing video - one more thing I never imagined I'd be excited to know! 🎉
Great video. We use leaves a lot in our garden and always have leaf mold on hand
Thanks Master Gardener Scott😊
I put the leaves in a separate bay in the autumn, and after a year mix it in with the compost of that year. This way the leaves get about 18 months to decompose, first on their own, followed by 6 months combined with regular compost.
I use a chipper shredder - just keep it a pile looks like what you put in the barrel after six months.
I was so excited about this one. Just finished building my two Forever beds. Used leaf mulch on the bottom. Compost on top, then potting soil.
My first go round with leaf mulch.
Love it.
Can’t wait until the round ones are back in stock. Hopefully July?
Thank you for your wisdom.
Blessings!
Thanks very much for the video.
Thanks for showing this follow up video of the lead mold. I used a lot of lead mold for my tomato and purple onion bed because I didn’t have enough compost. Yup yearly piles is a game changer, thanks for the tip Gardener Scott.
Leaves are free and one of the best amendments that you can make. By far the best bang for your efforts. Keep it simple. I use them as mulch for paths between plants during the spring, then at the end of the year, it gets worked into the soil for the next year. works for us I am not hauling bags of mulch from the ag co.
Thanks for this video! Next summer I'm ripping out my lawn, I wondered what I would do with all my leaves since composting would be a no-go.
I ordered a Geobin compost bin shortly after I saw this video and this fall I filled it to the brim with leaves that had been run over and chopped up with my mower. The Geobin holds approx 220 gallons of material and to try to speed up the process I decided to experiment. I added a light covering of fresh grass clippings to each eight or so inches of leaves and watered frequently. I was shocked to see that a couple of days after filling the Geobin the center of the pile got up to 140 degrees. I'm in Indiana and to try to keep the pile from freezing I've been adding coffee grounds and other "greens" to the center of the pile and even when the out side temp was in the mid teens the core of the pile hasn't dropped below 110. I've kept the pile watered and have the top covered with a few layers of cardboard and a tarp to try to hold in the moisture and hopefully the heat as well. I'm hoping to use the finished product as a replacement for the peat moss I've been using in my self watering container mix. Many thanks for inspiring me to try this out!
It sounds like you are making compost with the greens and high heat. Leaf mold is made at cooler temperatures and is a fungal decomposition. Are leaf mold and leaf compost interchangeable?? Hmmm, I don't know.
Thank you for the information.
Our Boulder, CO., soil has little organic material; as an experiment I collected bags of leaves (maple, mostly) around the neighborhood & scattered the leaves, as is, everywhere in the plantings - an inch or so as available. This spring the leaves hadn't fully broken down, but the plants were way better than previously. I left the leaves in place this spring and plan to add leaves again this fall!
Love it! I have a bunch of leaves to process this week, I'll be using some to make fertilizer and I will make a video. I have about four in my que but I'm having some issues so it might take a few days but they'll be up soon! Not giving up! God bless 💯🌿🌼🙏😀👍🌼🌿🌱🌻🌷🌾🌿🌱🐝💮🥀
Xin chào bạn Scott, chúc bạn cuối tuần vui vẻ và nhiều sức khỏe
Cảm ơn bạn. Tôi hy vọng cuối tuần của bạn là tốt.
@@GardenerScott yes
I’ve been doing that for about eight years now with 25 Oak in Naples in my yard I get the biggest nicest fattest worms and the richest most wonderful soil no bag stuff for this girl I’m doing dual work where can leaves and making dirt my husband calls me the queen of making do lol great video
It appears almost good enough to eat - yummers
I would love to be able to make lead mold. Unfortunately where I live we don’t have regular trees with leaves bet would work. It’s all cedar or live oak with the thick waxy leaves that don’t break down well.
Oak leaves make great leaf mold, they just take a little more prep to get anything in a timely matter. Running them through a leaf shredder or mowing and bagging them a few times will break the leaf cuticle enough to kick start the decomp.
I read somewhere that leaf mold is a great additive for comfrey/weed tea fertilizer as well. It adds some additional biology to the mixture and assists with breaking down things more quickly. I've added a handfull to the batches I have fermenting now. Not sure how much it helps but I'm sure that it can't hurt.
When I had buffaloes I used to ferment dry and pruned leaves too in the dung pit. Now I have only goats (due to age) and still that pit is used without goat dung. The water logging was due to six months of monsoon. Just before the next monsoon, I have compost. Fermenting is not so bad, as such.
I'm blown away by the fact you don't have a screening frame...
I have one that fits on my wheelbarrow, but just wanted to show how easy it is without constructing something extra.
I live in Fl. Leaves breakdown in less than a year here.
Mix of leaf and grass clippings
I think that would be considered compost rather than leaf mold but it's a great way to get quick compost.
Tried mixing only leaves and grass for the first time this year and it worked really well.
I do lazy composting and finally getting a hot pile (since the leaves and grass are so easy to turn) was pretty exciting 😄.
Great video! Do you ever have ground nesting bees take up residence in your leaf pile? I have heard that could happen. I love leaf mold.
Thanks. I haven't had bees but I have had a few wasps attempt it.
Did you shred the leaves first?
I shredded most of them, but not all in the second and third additions.
If you leave it anywhere near a tree, the trees will root into it, making it impossible to tear apart.
Are you able to accelerate that decomposition process by turning it like regular compost? Is there added benefit to just letting it naturally decompose?
Turning may accelerate it slightly if it's compacted, but that can disturb the fungal growth. Shredding the leaves is one option for accelerating the decomposition..
I have a bin twice that size. Sat for 2 years and I started using it this year. But underneath is just masses of fine roots. Very difficult to harvest the bottom layer. Maybe I shouldn't have built it in the woods. I had no black gold.
Garner Scott, love learning from your videos. I'm new at this gardening procedure so I have a question. I have an in ground garden. I planted tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, green bell peppers, couple of spice plants, swiss chard. Question, now that they have finished producing, should I just till everything with the tiller for next year. Or what do I do? Appreciate your advice.
Adding organic matter in fall is a good idea. You can till them in or use them to make compost and till the compost in later.
@@GardenerScott Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it. Happy Gardening.
Can you continue to add to the pile as is reduces until it stops shrinking to wind up with that much more or would that stretch the time it takes to be usable to years? I also wonder what the comparison is between this method and building a Johnson-Su Bioreactor? Do you chop up the leaves 1st?
You can add continually, but expect the bottom to decompose earlier than the top. The key difference in a Jognson-Su bioreactor is the use of tubes to introduce oxygen to the process.
Thank you so much for this video! Couple questions, I have been making these enclosures for my leaves for years but don't find this much breakdown. I wet the piles initially but I don't repeat too too much. Am I stacking my leaves too high and/or not wetting enough? Am realizing they are someone sheltered so the rain doesn't get them too much. I hate to disassemble my cages because of the mess on top (the most recent fall oak leaves), but I know the lower levels are 3-years old. I think I just need to accept the mess that this will be and get it done. 😅
Moist conditions are necessary so it's probably not enough water.
What about the leaching of nutrients when the leaf mold making is sitting under the rain ?
There is some leaching. I like to move compost bins and leaf mold bins around the garden because that leaching benefits the soil underneath.
Did you cover the pile with a tarp, add a source of nitrogen, or starter leaf mold and did you turn the file any during the 1 1/2 years? Thank You.
I didn't do anything other than keep the pile moist.
I was having dill pickles contest with my sister and planted 5 packs which is about 70 cucumber plants of Straight 8' s up a triangle trellis like tee pee and have 6 foot cucumber tree in July. I'm having trouble cause it turned into Jungle. Literally. It's 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall and keeps growing. So far I only have 3 female flowers,1 baby cucumber,and 1000 male flowers and I killed 8 yellow jacket nests that were killing my honey bees. I hope I get good crap but my dad which has farmed 80 plus years said he'll be surprised if I do.
Thank you Gardener Scott. I know some people break the leaves down using a mower. I only have a string mower. Is there a way to break the leaves down using a string mower before starting the composting process?
You can try putting the leaves in a trash can, tip it on its side, and slowly move the string trimmer into it.
You could put the leaves in a large bin (such as a medium or tall trash can) and lower the string trimmer into it, like a hand-held blender.
@@GardenerScott thank you Gardener Scott for the quick reply
@@laurabehenna7950 thank you Laura
Can you use the cat litter that breaks down into saw dust with poop removed?
If it is wood-based it should work.
@@GardenerScott thanks
For collecting leaves is jt safe to collect next to farms or from peoples laws (which are collected in bags already)? How would i know if the leaves did not absorb any herbicides off the farm sprraying or lawn care?
I like to ask the homeowner first before I take their bags to find out about whether herbicides or pesticides were used nearby. Herbicides are rarely an issue on tree leaves, but it is possible they can hold residue.
@@GardenerScott I'd imiagine hermicide can be ued on lawns, would falled leaves then possibly absorb the remaining herbicide in the lawn?
What about farmers spraying nearby farms? Any chance of those making it into the leaves?
What is the nitrogen content? You alluded to nitrogen/carbon balance needed in compost. But is leaf mold nitrogen deficient, being all carbon input? My garden is very nitrogen deficient right now I think because I used a ton of leaves and wood chips as mulch and some of that got mixed into the soil during planting.
Chop and drop is your friend! Grass clippings put on your garden right after mowing, weeds pulled from the garden (you can cut roots if you want to make sure they don't accidentally regrow) and leaf and/or plant matter that you prune off of the plants you are growing. All of these will help add more nitrogen back into your soil. Good luck. :)
The nitrogen levels are low. It is not a good source of nitrogen, but benefits the soil as an organic amendment and soil conditioner.
Wouldn't the rain wash away a lot of potential nutrients into the ground? Would putting these in some type of garbage/55-gallon barrel be better so one could syphon off the "juice" and use it?
Not all nutrients leach out but some will. I like to use this method to help improve the soil underneath for a future bed in that spot. A barrel can help retain them.
@@GardenerScott Thanks!
My worst nightmare, I'm allergic to that leaf mold spores
I was curious if there's anything venefitial ,for others, in leaf mold , chill the fuck out I was criticizing anyone
Is sade to use human urine on the leaf mold to speed up the process? The leaf mold would be used in a garden for veggies.
Yes, it has nitrogen and moisture.
Could have used urine but didn't? Sounds like a missed opportunity there!
That is an option to add nitrogen and hasten the process, but I wanted to see how long it takes with nothing added.
I think it’s unnecessary to screen and make a big deal out of what is basically a natural and easy process. Throw the leaves on your garden or on a pile and they’ll break down just fine. This is making a lot of extra work and over complicating an easy way to improve soil.
The screening was done in this video because he specifically plans to use the finer material in seed starting and potting mix. He clearly said it was not necessary to screen it if using it as a soil amendment.
Truly a gardener’s gold, I thank mother nature for such gift by planting wild flowers. 🪴🌹🌸💐🌷🌻🌺🌼