I discovered leaf mold by accident. Starting a couple of Falls ago, I
collected lots of bags of leaves in the neighborhood. (Maybe 50 bags). That
was way more than I needed for the current compost pile. To reduce the
volume, I put the leaves through a shredder which reduced the volume by more
than half. But I kept the leaves in bags. The leaves that were damp turned
into beautiful leaf mold by late Spring. The dry leave were unchanged. So
now I do this and just make sure the leaves are damp. I don't see any
reason to add fertilizer. I've always felt that that is inconsistent with
the philosophy of composting.
--
Compostman
Washington, DC
Zone 7
"mmarteen" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the ideas, it does sound like leaf mold is worth the wait.

[snip]

If you built a wide round wire bin five feet tall & filled it to the top
with leaves, by the time they were leafmold, the pile would have reduced
to less than one foot tall. Pure leafmold can also be had by cramming as
many damp leaves as possible into a black plastic bag with a dash of
nitrogen fertilizer mixed in if you really think it needs speeding up, &
shoving them into some out of the way crawlspace for half a year or so.
Pure leafmold is a more wonderful thing than compost per se. It's very
black & crumbly & makes a splendid attractive topcoating for the whole
garden.

[snip]

If I were to take the black plastic bag approach, what nitrogen fertilizer
would you recommend? Would bloodmeal work?

Thanks again!

mm