Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

i

Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

I use a high capacity leaf shredder. The leaves make wonderful compost. Your
compost pile doesn't have to be enormous, you can really pile ina lot into
a small area as long as you turn in occassionally.

Dave

"Ignoramus8649" wrote in message
...
We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

i

Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

The county is getting tired of collecting leaves so they are on a big
campaign to have you mulch them. One of the statistics they are using is
that 90% of the nutrients taken out of the soil is returned back to the soil
if you mulch the leaves. I live in a heavily forested area and its not
uncommon to get 8 inches of leaves on the ground. I just run my mulching
lawn mower over them and they disappear. May take several passes but it sure
beats raking. OF course I try not to let them get that deep before I mulch
them. THere is a danger of matting down the grass under the clippings.
Haven't raked leaves in over 15 years. In the spring I use a rake to clean
up whats left.

"Ignoramus8649" wrote in message
...
We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

i

Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

"David J Bockman" wrote in message . ..
I use a high capacity leaf shredder. The leaves make wonderful compost. Your
compost pile doesn't have to be enormous, you can really pile ina lot into
a small area as long as you turn in occassionally.

Dave

Yes, here is a twist: one of the advantages of having large islands of
ground cover/mulch around the trees (besides reduced mowing, and
reduced turning of the mower) is that it is where fall leaves can be
disposed. First I blow the leaves from the islands on the lawn part of
the yard, and then as I mow them (a couple of passes are usually
necessary, as well as sharp blades) all are thrown back, shredded,
onto the islands where they will be completely under the ground cover
by next May. I estimate that each year the leaves are removed one
millimeter of top soil goes. I usually mow all my leaves, and take
those of neighbors for the compost pile.

Leaves do three things for trees. They conserve moisture, they provide
most of the nitrogen inflow (via bacteria), and they provide humus for
better nutrient absorption. The fun (crazy) thing is that people are
willing to let grass and lack of nutrients weaken their trees, and
then they are willing to plop $1000 to remove a big tree near the
house. And all they need is their own leaves, and some extra wood
chips perhaps.


"Ignoramus8649" wrote in message
...
We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

i

Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

Ignoramus8649 wrote:

We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks. Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so (wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter and
yet have a good looking yard.

Use the leaves as a mulch around the trees. Spread as a mulch, the
leaves will decompose, forming compost without a compost pile. It
just takes a little longer. Oaks in particular actually need a
build-up of leaves and leafmold in their root zones if they are to
thrive.

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

Fall, leaves, and soil depletion
 

They could also bag them in lawn sized trash bags and let other
gardeners know they can have them for free.

Also they could reduce the amount of space by running a lawn mower
threw the pile of leaves. This could cut down the amount by 60 to 80%
and then they could use it for mulch too.

To bad they're not near me, I could use those leaves for my own desert
garden.


--
Dragons Must Fly when Thread's in the Sky

www.starlords.org

"David Ross" wrote in message
...
Ignoramus8649 wrote:

We have quite a few trees on our property, including big oaks.
Every
year we gather huge piles of leaves, like 20 cubic yards or so
(wild
guess), and put them on the curb to be "vacuumed" by a giant
machine.

Enormous quantity of stuff, simply enormous.

It stikes me as an awful loss of organic matter and something that
would surely lead to soil depletion. Is that correct?

If so, what would be a practical way to address it. I cannot have
a
giant compost pile. What else can I do to keep the oranic matter
and
yet have a good looking yard.

Use the leaves as a mulch around the trees. Spread as a mulch, the
leaves will decompose, forming compost without a compost pile. It
just takes a little longer. Oaks in particular actually need a
build-up of leaves and leafmold in their root zones if they are to
thrive.

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


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