Is it my imagination or are there more leaves around this autumn?

My garden, with plenty of tress around it, is absolutely inundated with them
and I am having to make a very big wire netting pen to hold them all.

My theory is that the fine, hot summer has produced more growth on all the
branches and therefore more leaves.
--
Roy Bailey
West Berkshire.

The message
from Roy Bailey contains these words:

Is it my imagination or are there more leaves around this autumn?

My garden, with plenty of tress around it, is absolutely inundated with them
and I am having to make a very big wire netting pen to hold them all.

My theory is that the fine, hot summer has produced more growth on all the
branches and therefore more leaves.

Nah: they're just all falling off at the same time rather than a
staggered drop.

--
Rusty Hinge
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 10:13:07 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

~The message
~from Roy Bailey contains these words:
~
~ Is it my imagination or are there more leaves around this autumn?
~
~ My garden, with plenty of tress around it, is absolutely inundated with them
~ and I am having to make a very big wire netting pen to hold them all.
~
~ My theory is that the fine, hot summer has produced more growth on all the
~ branches and therefore more leaves.
~
~Nah: they're just all falling off at the same time rather than a
~staggered drop.
~

Glad you said this: I don't think it is your imagination, simply
because I've just come in from hoovering my sycamores and I have 9
binliners full, all nicely shredded and tamped down.

Last year I had 5, most of which dropped off in the first week of
December. This year at least we've had earlier frosts and they have
just been finished off by the storm. Maybe it's a combination of both
effects. A lot got blown away last night so they're someone else's
problem!

I haven't even hoovered one of the side beds either. I like to leave
one for the worms to dine in :-)

Now all I've got to do is convey them to the garage, water them and
forget about them for ~2 years.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 16:21:54 +0000 (UTC),
(jane) wrote:

My theory is that the fine, hot summer has produced more growth on all the
~ branches and therefore more leaves.
~
I have just read in the Telegraph, in a list of cleaning tips....
"Hard-to-clean pots can be cleaned easily if you boil fallen leaves
from the garden (honestly) in the pan for 15 to 30 mins. Use only a
small amount of water and cover the pan."
I wish I had a really dirty pan to try it. There probably won't be
any fallen leaves when I need them!

Pam in Bristol

(jane) wrote in message ...
On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 10:13:07 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

~
Now all I've got to do is convey them to the garage, water them and
forget about them for ~2 years.\

Hi Jane! I was interested in this part of your message. Please
explain! Is this to help them rot down for use as compost? Do you
leave them in plastic bags? Do you give them any air holes?

I am interested as I have just taken 8 bags of leaves to the tip and
feel its such a waste as we usually compost our garden waste but this
was just too large a quantity.

A further question- has anyone any suggestions of how to get rid of
Cupressus hedge trimmings. Again I have vaste quantities of this
antisocial garden waste - too much for a shredder and not enough space
to burn them. Is the only solution countless trips to the tip.

On 19 Nov 2003 07:12:00 -0800, (ayrposter)
wrote:

(jane) wrote in message ...
~ On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 10:13:07 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades
~ wrote:
~
~ ~
~Now all I've got to do is convey them to the garage, water them and
~ forget about them for ~2 years.\
~
~Hi Jane! I was interested in this part of your message. Please
~explain! Is this to help them rot down for use as compost? Do you
~leave them in plastic bags? Do you give them any air holes?

I do leave (ha!) them in the bags and tthey do have a few holes though
not as many as Don, Titchmarsh etc seem to suggest as I don't want a
soggy mess on my garage floor. The top isn't knotted so air can get in
there, as well as a few side holes. Last year it was wet so no
watering was needed: this year it's been dry so I gave them all a fair
soaking. The aforementioned gentlemen say that leaf decomposition is
primarily fungal and so they need the wet.

~
~I am interested as I have just taken 8 bags of leaves to the tip and
~feel its such a waste as we usually compost our garden waste but this
~was just too large a quantity.
I just stack them up at the back of the garage and forget about them!
Next spring I'll rescue those from 2001 and stick them on the garden
around the shrubs, though I'm getting more tempted to sieve the better
rotted ones for potting compost.

~A further question- has anyone any suggestions of how to get rid of
~Cupressus hedge trimmings. Again I have vaste quantities of this
~antisocial garden waste - too much for a shredder and not enough space
~to burn them. Is the only solution countless trips to the tip.

those can be quite acidic I think... not sure how to deal with them.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

On 19 Nov 2003 07:12:00 -0800, (ayrposter)
wrote:

Do you
leave them in plastic bags? Do you give them any air holes?

I am interested as I have just taken 8 bags of leaves to the tip and
feel its such a waste as we usually compost our garden waste but this
was just too large a quantity.

Leaves take longer than other stuff to rot down, but in bin bags,
dumped in a corner of the garden somewhere they will rot down to leaf
mould in a couple of years or less. Make sure the leaves are wet and
stab the bags a few times with t garden fork to allow air in.

Your conifer trimmings will rot down too. The bigger the pieces, the
longer they take. Best shredded, but it just takes longer if not. If
you don't have room, then yes, it's the tip! Does your council
collect? Some do. Some sell you bags of compost, some let you
collect it free.
Check yours out!

Pam in Bristol

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:55:19 +0000 (UTC),
(jane) wrote:

The aforementioned gentlemen say that leaf decomposition is
primarily fungal and so they need the wet.
And Bob Flowerdew advocates the addition of "recycled beer and cider".
I want to ask him if recycled tea and coffee is as good!!

Jane, I tie my bags up and forget about them except in summers like
our last one. They are just as good outdoors.


Pam in Bristol

On 19 Nov 2003 07:12:00 -0800, (ayrposter)
wrote:

I am interested as I have just taken 8 bags of leaves to the tip and
feel its such a waste as we usually compost our garden waste but this
was just too large a quantity.

Perhaps you don't realise just how much leaves reduce in volume when
left in bags to rot down. A full bin-bag of leaves collapses to a
wodge a few inches thick inside a year or so - it surprises me every
year how little space they take up, within a remarkably short time.

Regards, VivienB

The message
from (ayrposter) contains these words:

A further question- has anyone any suggestions of how to get rid of
Cupressus hedge trimmings. Again I have vaste quantities of this
antisocial garden waste - too much for a shredder and not enough space
to burn them. Is the only solution countless trips to the tip.

Compost them and remove any woody bits later.

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)

In article , ayrposter
writes

A further question- has anyone any suggestions of how to get rid of
Cupressus hedge trimmings. Again I have vaste quantities of this
antisocial garden waste - too much for a shredder and not enough space
to burn them. Is the only solution countless trips to the tip.

If you trim the hedge regularly, so that you don't have thick twigs, the
compost heap will cope with them. But perhaps your quantity is too large
for that.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

A few years ago I really crammed a few bags with damp leaves, in the spring
they had reduced by about 80%.
I opened the bags to just fill a couple to find they were fully broken down
and ready for use.
NO. air holes in the bags and the tops tied tight.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

ayrposter wrote:
(jane) wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 10:13:07 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

~
Now all I've got to do is convey them to the garage, water them and
forget about them for ~2 years.\

Hi Jane! I was interested in this part of your message. Please
explain! Is this to help them rot down for use as compost? Do you
leave them in plastic bags? Do you give them any air holes?

I am interested as I have just taken 8 bags of leaves to the tip and
feel its such a waste as we usually compost our garden waste but
this
was just too large a quantity.

A further question- has anyone any suggestions of how to get rid of
Cupressus hedge trimmings. Again I have vaste quantities of this
antisocial garden waste - too much for a shredder and not enough
space
to burn them. Is the only solution countless trips to the tip.

I know it may not be feasible for everyone, but I just sweep/blow my
autumn leaves under the shrubbery and cover them with old wire netting
until next spring. By then they will be sufficiently decomposed to
just sit there like a mulch, and I can then remove the netting for the
growing season.
Cupressus clippings from 120ft of hedging, I do shred. That always
reduces the bulk. I then use them on veg plot paths or on a patch of
waste ground next to the garage. That is now my source of potting
compost. Beautiful stuff it is. Close to peat in texture. Or spread
some of the clippings under the cupressus to mulch out the weeds and
grass.

--
ned