On 11/5/2009 10:54 PM, sherwin dubren wrote:
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?

My solution is to use the lawn mower as a vacuum cleaner with a bag
attached. This mixture of chopped up leaves and some grass is more
compact than the whole leaves. This gets dumped into my compost bins.
These bins can fill up initially, but very soon will natureally compact
even more from their own weight or from the rain. You ahould have
enough room in any reasonably sized bins to acommodate your entire
lawn. I only bag my grass clippings once a year after leaf fall to
clean up the leaves. Otherwise, bagging too much will remove too
much nutrients from the lawn.

Sherwin

Others made the distinction for me: Compost starts as 50% green matter
(e.g., grass clippings) and 50% brown matter (e.g., dead leaves). Mine
is about 95% brown matter.

My lawn is an ornamental grass. It grows 6" or more and flops over.
(Yes, I can walk on it; but it's not for children to play.) When it
gets mowed (only once or twice a year), the clippings are not fine. If
I add too much, I can't really stir the pile. Then the clippings mat
down and don't mix with the rest of the pile.

The lawn is mowed in October, before leaves begin to fall. With
different kinds of trees that drop their leaves at different times, I
would have to mow more often, defeating the purpose of planting red
fescue.

With only one or two mowings a year for a rather small lawn, I don't own
a power mower. Instead, I use a lawn service. I don't want to pay them
for extra visits just to pick up leaves.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary