I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden next
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets cold this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help make it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags Thank
you

Romy Beeck wrote:
I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden
next
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets
cold this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help
make it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags
Thank
you

Take them out of the bags, and spread them over your vegetable garden.
Run over them with the lawn mower to chop them up. Cover with manure. If
you have a tiller, go ahead and till it. Consider covering with a tarp.
When the ground unthaws, and is no longer wet, till in some more manure.
By the time you start planting your tomato and pepper starts, they'll be
decomposed, and contributing to the soil. Unless those leaves get mixed
with some soil, they're not going to decompose much at all in or out of
the bags.

--
Warren H.

==========
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Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
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response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
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Romy Beeck said:

I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden next
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets cold this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help make it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags Thank
you

I would suggest that you shred them up somehow and till them in this fall,
rather than wait until spring. You could spread them out where you plan to
till them in and use a lawnmower.

If you plant to use them as mulch, it would be best to shred and store them
in heavy plastic bags DRY. (We do this every fall.) Shredded leaves are
also easier to compost. Feeding them through a lawnmower can work.
Running a string trimmer up and down through a garbage can of leaves
has sometimes been suggested. There are leaf vacuums that shred, and
there are stand-alone electric leaf shredders. (At the Kiewicz place, we
scrounge bags of leaves from the neighborhood, pour them out, suck them
up with a leaf vacuum and direct the output into a leaf shredder. And yes,
all that work is worth it -- though I wish you could just BUY shredded,
compressed leaves like you can Canadian peat.)


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

I am in Wisconsin. we used bag of leaves on the rose bed as insulation. next spring
I haul them to a sunny spot, punch holes in the bag and run water in. I stack them
up and let them marinate during the summer. by fall they are mostly broken down and
can be dug in for compost. Ingrid

"Romy Beeck" wrote:

I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden next
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets cold this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help make it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags Thank
you




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 21:48:42 -0600, "Romy Beeck"
wrote:

I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden next
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets cold this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help make it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags Thank

By the time all the leaves rot inside the bag (about 2-3 YEARS from
now), other plants will have broken though the plastic. The mess of
roots and dirt mixed with plastic will be a pain to separate. Shred
the leaves and leave them on the garden, minus the bag.

Dan

wrote in
:

I am in Wisconsin. we used bag of leaves on the rose bed as
insulation. next spring I haul them to a sunny spot, punch holes
in the bag and run water in. I stack them up and let them
marinate during the summer. by fall they are mostly broken down
and can be dug in for compost. Ingrid


Do I understand correctly that you leave the leaves in the bag and
place the filled bags around your plants? Do you do anything else to
protect the plant at ground level?

Jim
Zone 6, Niagara

I don't necessarily have a milestone. For years, I've gathered
150-200
sacks of leaves every fall and use a chipper shredder to grind them
down
and let them sit till late spring, early summer. Good leaf mold. A
year
ago I started a landscaping company and I ran out of storage space
as I
carry inventory of trees, shrubs and perennials. Last December, the
guy
who introduced me to composting 11 years ago and who was a major
player
in what I'm doing today, bought the house next door. He had it moved
off
the lot in March and the empty is a vicorty garden/native plant/pond
site "green" area. I collect leaves and clippings throughout the
year
and give him a good amount. Last Sunday we went out and collected
120
bags and shredded them down to a 10' wide and 4' tall mound. Would
have
gone today but I had a presentation and we had our first rain in 2
months. We'll go another 2 times and that will do for fall. I'm
fortunate that he has some vacant land. Now, if I could just find a
cheap warehouse....

J. Kolenovsky

Romy Beeck wrote:
=

I have big bags of whole leaves just laying there to put in my garden n=
ext
spring. Should i had water to them. I'm in wisconsin where it gets cold=
this
winter.Will they rot good enough just laying there can anyone help make=
it
better.Any advice would be great.I put a few small holes in the bags T=
hank
you

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal

yes, in winter. no, didnt do anything else and it really didnt work all that well
either. I think planting very deep, cutting them back and mounding with dirt and
then putting the bags of leaves on for insulation works a lot better. Ingrid

Jim McQuiggin wrote:

wrote in
:
Do I understand correctly that you leave the leaves in the bag and
place the filled bags around your plants? Do you do anything else to
protect the plant at ground level?

Jim
Zone 6, Niagara



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message

If you plant to use them as mulch, it would be best to shred and store
them
in heavy plastic bags DRY. (We do this every fall.) Shredded leaves are
also easier to compost.

Do you rake them out of your flower beds, if you have them? I debate
whether to rake them out, shred them, then put them back in. Sometimes
that's just what I do. The earthworms are in mass abundance in my flower
beds, and I'm certain it's due to their feast of shredded leaves. The
topsoil is crumbly earthworm castings, and if you brush it aside, there are
many happy worms under there!

I just wonder if I should leave the whole leaves in the beds, but sometimes
they smother everything that stays evergreen (eg., foxglove, sweet william,
campanula), and it ends up being a slimy mess come springtime. I question
my methods every year at this time, so just wondered what others might do.

Mary Ellen