"sherwin dubren" wrote in message
David E. Ross wrote:

First priority is to use autumn leaves to mulch my beds. After making a
layer about 3" thick, I lay out small branches to hold the leaves in
place. Around my oak, I actually anchored chicken wire to hold the
mulch.

Next priority is to add them to my compost pile, which is more leaf mold
than compost. It has a large amount of oak leaves, which make a great
leaf mold.

In the end -- generally when my ash tree starts to drop its leaves --
they go in a bin for our county's composting program. Since the leaves
often exceed the capacity of the bin, I make piles of them on the patio
and back walkways.

No, I don't have a blower. I use a lawn rake. I just had my back lawn
mowed. It's red fescue, a tall ornamental grass. If it were not mowed,
I would not be able to rake leaves from it; the accumulated leaves would
then smother the lawn. I'll be adding some of the grass clippings to
the compost pile.


David,

Why do you make a distinction between leaf mold and compost? Aren't
they the same thing?

No, they aren't the same thing even though compost may have some leaves
included in it.

Leaf mould is made by piling leaves and then letting the pile rot down for a
couple of years without disturbance. Leaves have lignin in them and thus
they take a long time to rot and, unlike compost, it is a cold rotting
process rather than a hot one. Leaves decompose by using fungal
decompostition IIRC whereas compost is made by bacterial decomposition
(again, IIRC).

Leaf mould is valuble as the end result of decayed material is more durable
in the soil than 'normal' compost (because of the lignin).

Another difference is that Leaf mould is made of just leaves and compost is
made of a combination of materials and includes a high nitrogen content
which is not present in leaf mould.

Some leaves take forever to turn into leaf mould, for example, Plane tree
leaves.