[PaulF]

Very good explanations of composting and leaf mold. I have been an advocate of composting for many years. My chipper/shredder is a 10hp Troy-Bilt that is used for chipping up trees and limbs and shredding leaves. It is a powerful piece of machinery that makes short work of leaves and reduces volume tenfold. The leaves are mostly oak, elm, ash and catalpa and get tilled into the garden and mixed into the compost pile as browns. The left over piles turn into leaf mold and get added to the garden and flower beds as needed.