In article P7Uhc.12640$uF3.9294@lakeread04, Suja wrote:

Peter wrote:
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.

It would help to chop up the leaves. Pile up the leaves, run the mower
over it and then use it in your pile. Breaks down *much* quicker. If
you are looking to get it done quickly, you would need to balance the
browns with some greens - used coffee grounds from Starbucks (they have
a 'Grounds for the Garden' program) works great. Me, I get the chopped
up leaves from the county leaf mulch pile, pile it on my flower beds,
and over time, it all breaks down into yummy stuff. The plants love it.

Suja

I usually let fallen leaves serve as totally natural autumn & winter
mulch. If I need to get the leaves off cyclamen beds, I rake them over
some other location that won't feel smothered. In our wet winters, the
leaves turn to leafmold right in the garden by winter's end, contact with
moist ground being sufficient. Unless there are LARGE leaves they won't
need chopping, but large leaves can become a water-barriers, which can be
a good thing for areas with bulbs that aren't fond of as much dampness as
winter brings them here.

For extra leaves what I've done is stuff them wet in plastic bags, shove
the sealed bags back in the crawlspace under the deck, & a year or so
later they come out prefect black leafmold. I do put a little bit of moist
soil in the sacks but only to make sure whiteworms are introduced.
Whiteworms are miniature earthwoms that just LOVE to live in piles of
leaves & greatly assist the break-down into leafmold; dry ground wouldn't
have such beasties & leaves won't reduce down to leafmold without
SOMEthing alive that helps leaves rot away. After a year bagged in the
crawlspace, only have to open the bag a bit to see if smells all right. If
it does not smell quite nice, it's not ready, so back in the crawlspace
the bags stay a bit longer. When finished though this is the
sweetest-smelling crumbly black stuff that looks great spread over the
surface of a planting bed. One never gets much at a time though; a big bag
of leaves breaks down into only one bucket of leafmold.

The chicken wire trick if kept moist ought to work fine, but only the
leaves compacted on the bottom are reduced to leafmold with any speed,
where worms & fungus interact best with the dead leaves. For the whole
pile it won't happen as quickly as if they were sealed in bags, & the only
real purpose of the chickenwire is to make it possible to stack the leaves
higher in a finite space for a year or two, without them blowing away or
spreading out over too large an area.

They can also of course be used as "browns" in regular compost, though you
end up with more compost instead of leafmold. Pure leafmold is dark & very
pretty. It is also almost devoid of nitrogen, but works as a fertilizer
not by being itself much of a plant food, but by encouraging
nitrogen-manufacturing microbial activity in the garden.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/