Every Autumn , I see piles of tree   leaves waiting for city trucks to come along and suck them up to be express off to the municipal   compost plenty . If you ’re agardener ,   I sincerely yours hope that you ’re saving your tree   leave for your garden . They can be used as mulch or compost and are an important informant of nutrients for your garden land and lawn .

What plant nutrients are in tree leaves?

fall tree leavesare one of the most efficient constituent fertilizers , as they incorporate virtually every nutritional element your works need . Do n’t overlook them as a garden and lawn compost .

Tree leaves are the end source of all the element a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ’s roots disembowel from the ground . Nitrogen , Phosphorous , Potassium , Calcium , Magnesium , Sulfur , Copper , Zinc , Manganese , Copper , Boron , and more are found abundantly in leaves and those element go a long way towards feeding any plant ( the specific food and amounts take issue depending on the tree specie ) . The yearly addition of those leaves into your garden layer , along with other forms of compost , will serve create a fertile , dark ground with excellenttilth .

How to use tree leaves as a fertilizer and soil conditioner

Make Compost

Shredded tree leaves are a great addition to your compost pile . But as they ’re very high in carbon ( a 54:1 carbon paper to N ratio ) , verify that you ’ve got enough “ greenish ” cloth like pasture press clipping , origin meal , kitchen scraps or manure ( poultry or horse only ) in the compost pile so the leave-taking break down in a timely manner . Without the added atomic number 7 they ’ll mat together and shape one vainglorious clump of dead , pixilated leaves . If your garden is fallow over the winter , work the tear up leave into the grime as soon as they drop so they ’ll decompose over the wintertime and early spring .

Make Leaf Mold

You bang that layer of bootleg , earthy smell soil just under the leaves and twigs on the timber trading floor ? That’sleaf moldand it feeds industrial plant like nobody ’s line of work . It ’s the end Cartesian product of tree leaf decomposing in a moist environment , primarily by fungi .

To make leaf mold , rake your leaves into a pile and water them down . Then let them sit for two or three age . Yes , class .

That ’s really all youhaveto do , but most of us like to contain them somehow or hie up the process . you could shred them and append them to acompost binor a conducting wire bin to contain them and add coffee grounds to help them decompose ( coffee groundsare very high in N and maybe the complete compliment for composting tree diagram parting ) . Turn them once in a while to check that thatanaerobicbacteria does n’t progress up and create a putrid feeling .

To make a round-eyed wire bin to compost your leaves , make a 3′ public square from chicken conducting wire , hardware material or exchangeable wire fencing material and place it in a shady corner of your property ( you may alsobuy wire bins online like this one ) . scan your Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree leaves and lade them into the bin . Leave in place for one or two years , keep the pile consistently moist and become only once a yr . Expect your folio mold to be about 1/3rd the mass of your original leaf pile .

Shred them

You do n’t require a fancy shredder to shred Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree leaves ; you just need a lawnmower . A mulching blade on your lawn mower make well , as it will labor the leaves into tiny mote , small-scale enough to force them down to the soil line , where they ’ll feed your lawn over the winter and add water supply - holding capacity to the soil . If you have a old bag mower and a standard mower blade , apply the mower to shred the leaves , which will end up in the bag . That makes for a nice , fresh yard and deal of compostable material , as you ’ll have the leaves and nitrogen - heavy lawn trim mixed together ( see above ) .

Work leaves into your garden beds

My personal “ foliage technique ” is sloughy , but it work . I simply work tree leaves into my flower and vegetable beds with a garden agriculturalist . If some are already dry , I dilapidate them up and scatter them in the bottom . This gets the leaves down into the soil where the worms , kingdom Fungi , and bacteria can go to make on them .

By the next spring , the leaves have decomposed and add their nutrients to the grime . It ’s very important that you do n’t just allow the leaves lay on the open of your garden bed . There , they ’ll mat together and create a dim screening that wo n’t allow air and water supply through ( but it will block weed seed ) . cumulus of dry leave on your layer may merely blow away in the wintertime winds .

Tree leaves are a swell endowment for your garden – do n’t let them go to waste .