In article , Janet Conroy
wrote:


I'm in the UK where most gardeners either gather up leaves and put them
into black plastic bags with some holes in or into a kind of pen made
with chicken wire. They are eventually put back onto the garden when
they have broken down (one or two years here). I don't leave many
leaves on borders, because smaller plants often rot underneath them and
never any on lawns. I mulch with well-rotted compost.

I used to do this and there's nothing better than a black crumbly leafmold
to top soil, it's so rich and dark looking. It's not nutrient rich, but it
encourages micro organisms of the best sorts. I'd put it in garbage bags
making sure it was a little moist and had some whiteworms in it
(whiteworms are a miniscule earthworth very common in leaflitter in
autumn) and it would usually take two years to become pure black crumbly
leafmold. Left out in the garden, though, the leaves break down into
leafmold by spring, so now I don't bother to bag up leaves.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
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