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It's Autumn, Leave Those Leaves! 10-10-08

The smell of autumn permeates the air. The cool, crisp weather signals fall’s annual crimson-colored foliage. For many an avid lawn keeper, the harvest season often means returning to the never-ending chore of raking and bagging leaves, then setting them at curbside for the weekly garbage haul-off. But stop right there.

Leaves are packed full of nutrients! Under normal growing conditions — with varied values, based on the source and condition of each tree — leaves are jam-packed with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, chloride, boron, iron, sodium, copper, and zinc. To simply rake and bag them up, only to be hauled off to the garbage landfill is a total waste of nature’s vast supply of rich nutrients, perfect for replenishing the soil.

So how do you go green in the fall? Start the process by not throwing away your leaves. There are alternatives. Mowing leaves, then mulching, and composting are the most effective way to reuse and recycle leaf mixtures. In addition, leaves can be used for overall soil improvement, directly working them into garden and flowerbed soils by tilling them in.

Master Gardener Beth Finlay, of Berks County, Pa., educated through the Penn State University Master Gardener Program, is an avid-promoter of mulching and composting autumn’s treasures.

“Rake to get the leaves off of the perennial beds; rake them onto the lawn, then mow both the leaves and the lawn together, which results in a perfect compost mix. This is an ideal mix; ready to place into the compost bin,” Finlay says.

Recycling leaves may seem like additional work, but Finlay drives the point home about these techniques: “Look, (before going green) you’re already doing all the work; you’re raking, bagging and hauling the bags to curbside. All you’re really doing differently is placing the mulched mixtures into a compost pile or taking them to a facility, it’s just a different process, and it’s extremely simple. After a while, it becomes automatic. It just makes more sense.”

“For lighter leaf fall, fine leaves are a good source of nitrogen and great for placing back into the soil,” Finlay explains. “But in Pennsylvania, we suggest using only a finer mixture of leaf mulch, because heavy leaves are too much, and can smother the ground. If your leaf fall is heavy, the fall rains and then snow, will compact the leaves and kill the grass beneath it. So mulch in the fall.”

For those who do have really light leaf fall, recycling is much easier. “In fine form, a leaf and lawn mixture that’s just been mowed, can be left on the lawn,” Finlay says. “If it’s in fine form, it will get down in between the blades of grass and incorporate into the soil; feeding it and supplying it with nutrition.”

This type of fine mixture can additionally be applied in a 3 to 6 inch layer around the base of trees and shrubs, and a 2 to 3 inch mulch mixture can be placed in annual perennial flowerbeds, for a beneficial source of nutrients.

For much heavier mulching mixes, direct those leaves to the compost that’s either in your own backyard or by sending them to a compost facility in your town, providing that your area provides public composting access or leaf recycling services. To find out what your county has available for leaf-recycling, contact the Cooperative and Extension System office in your area.

GET DOWN AND “DIRTY” WITH THE USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture has created a wonderful website where you can find out exactly who to contact in your location, to answer all of your agriculture and horticulture questions, from recycling leaves to composting concerns. These Cooperative and Extension System offices provide volunteer gardening buffs and Master Gardeners to answer questions, offer lectures, and maintain links to the public in many ways. Consider them to be your horticultural hot line.

For creating a home-compost, try these sources:

• The Missouri Department of Natural Resources guide to composting, which is detailed but not too lengthy.
• The Rodale Book of Composting: Easy Methods for Every Gardener.

The latter book comes highly recommended by Master Gardener John Borbas, with the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, AK. Borbas explains that in his hometown of Fayetteville, one of the fall foliage capitals of the world with some 600 different types of trees in the nearby forests.

“Composting the leaves here, it’s a great way to utilize the enormous amounts of nutrients that are available; don’t throw them away, compost them.”he says.

Borbas explained one method for creating your own backyard compost:

“By setting leaves in 12 inch-high piles, then putting alfalfa pellets on them, using about 2 coffee cans full of pellets on the pile, then watering; it’s very good and easy,” he said. “You keep layering every 12 inches in this way, until reaching about 4 feet-high. The temperature will reach 120-140 degrees in there within three days or so, and that’s how the mixture gets broken down.”

He explains that this process occurs no matter how cold it is outside, “Even if it’s 18 degrees outside,” he says, “the mixture will still heat up in there.”

Borbas also suggests not going higher than 4 feet, because going any higher than that level can cause problems where oxygen and sunlight, essentials to composting, are not being allowed inside the pile.

“A compost bin that’s 4 ft high and 6 ft wide is a great size for a backyard; shape’s not important but height is - too high is not good - too high can smother the compost,” Borbas says.

He also suggests placing straw or wood chips in between each 12-inch layer, to serve as a cover to keep flies and rodents out. “If you don’t have straw, then use wood chips. Electric companies are always cutting down tree limbs that get in the way of electrical wires; sometimes they will donate their wood chips to you if you call them. That’s where I get mine from, and they are happy to give them to me.”

So call your electricity provider and nab another natural resource that would otherwise go to waste.

COMPOSTING, COMPACTLY

For a smaller backyard composting system, there are many options for neat and tidy composting. Smith & Hawken’s black Biostack Composter is a best seller, and provides 13 cubic feet of compost space.

Many other green online retailers sell smaller composters, such as these rotating models from Greenfeet, Gaiam (shown) and Clean Air Gardening’s modestly sized hoop composter.

In summary, there are four simple strategies to remember for managing leaves, as outlined by The Texas A&M System’s Department of Horticultural Sciences “Don’t Bag It - Leaf Management Plan“:

1. Mowing - A light covering of leaves can be mowed along with your lawn, simply leaving the shredded leaves in place afterward. This technique is effective when a mulching mower is used. But a basic lawnmower can also be used effectively.
   (For a mower that virtually has no emissions, check out the Black & Decker Electric Cordless Mulching Mower, a greener alternative to the regular lawn mower. Reel mowers also abound. But customers beware. Reel and electric mowers garner mixed reviews on customer feedback sites for their mowing abilities (never mind mulching), being hailed by some, dissed by others.)
2. Mulching - A lawn mower with a bagging attachment provides a fast and easy way to shred and collect the leaves, then the leaves that have been mowed or run through some other type of shredder can decompose in a compost or on a lawn, depending on how light or heavy the leaf production happens to be. If it’s light, it can be left on the lawn, otherwise, take it to the compost.
3. Soil Improvement - Leaves may be collected and worked directly into garden and flowerbed soils. A 6 to 8 inch layer of leaves tilled into a heavy clay soil will improve aeration and drainage. The same amount tilled into a light, sandy soil, will improve water and nutrient holding capacity. A recommended strategy for using leaves to improve soil in vegetable gardens and annual planting beds is to collect and work them into the soil during the fall. This allows sufficient time for the leaves to decompose prior to spring planting. Adding a little fertilizer to the soil after working in the leaves will speed up their decomposition.
4. Composting - Allowing the leaves to decay organically, in a bin or structure; it’s nature’s own way of recycling organic materials back into a rich soil known as compost. The leaves decompose taking anywhere from five months to two years to compost, but the result is a beneficial reuse of autumn’s foliage.

Smith & Hawken explains composting being as easy as 1-2-3:

First step? Select a compost bin, then place the bin in a sunny space for faster decomposition. (The hotter your pile gets, the quicker it decomposes.) Second, collect kitchen scraps and yard trimmings. Any organic material can be added to your compost pile. Keep a small bin in your kitchen to collect melon rinds, carrot peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds, apple cores, banana peels - and anything similar that cycles through your kitchen. Keep the lid on tight to discourage insects. Add these scraps to your compost pile once or twice a week. (These light kitchen scraps mix great with lawn leaves, providing lots of organic material for decomposition.) And third, add air and water. Rotate your pile as often as needed to encourage circulation. Water periodically so materials stay as damp as a well-wrung sponge.

For info on building larger composting structures, see this advice from the The University of Minnesota, with tips on using wire fencing, cement blocks or bricks or a 55 gallon drum to make a composter.

Borbas says that composting is so much more cost-effective than discarding a valuable resource. “When people bag their leaves and put them out on the street, it costs money per bag. In Fayetteville, it costs $1.50 per bag to throw away good nutrition. So compost it; kill the bags,” he said.

Ultimately, whether you choose to mulch or compost or both, you’re making a good economical and environmental decision. Not only will you feel better for choosing to recycle back to nature, but you’ll be saving yourself some money. And that just makes sense.