Peter wrote in message news

some time back around December, a few posters were extolling the virtues
of leaf mulch.
One person (paghat, I think it was) mentioned putting the leafs into a
chicken wire
enclosure and keeping them wet, claiming that they would break down in a
few months
into leaf mulch.

Well, I went into the chicken wire enclosure, and found piles of wet
leaves and no
leaf mulch. Doesn't look like anything happened at all over the past few
months.
Packed about 40 bags of dead leaves and dropped them off at the landfill.

So, what is the secret??? Obviously getting leaf mulch from leaves seems
to be more
of an involved process than just stacking the leaves, keeping them wet
and turning
every now and then.

Anyone know???

You need to introduce some "green" stuff to get the pile hot. The easiest
I've found is to use rabbit food, which is mostly alfalfa meal. I get a
couple of $5 bags from the feed store, soak it in water and distribute it in
layers with the leaves. The pile gets hot and steamy in a day or so. I
covered mine in plastic to retain the moisture and heat and I had usable
compost in about three months...