Good question. The leaves will break down, but may temporarly tie up the
nitrogen reserves in your soil. Evidence of this is yellow leaves. When the
leaves are decayed the problem resloves. If you want to till in leaves you can
add extra nitrogen,perhaps in the form of blood meal. Too many leaves can also
lower the pH of the soil.

Brynk wrote:

Last fall I had many, many truckloads of leaves dumped on my property to use
as soil ...when... they break down.

I have timber soil which is poor for most plantings.

I'd like to dump in a foot or so into my veg garden, as I do with horse
manure each year, but I'm wondering if it would detract from plantings
rather than enrich the soil.

Will more nutrients be used up to break down the leaves than feed the
vegetables?

--

Barry