Leaf Mold

Jake L. · December 23, 2009

Hello. At my other house that we will be moving into, we have a 50 square feet of piled leaves about 10 feet high. Leaf mold is being made at the moment in the center and near the bottoms. Is it possible that I could add used coffee grounds to the leaves to make leaf mold faster, or would it just be ordinary compost rather than leaf mold?

Thanks,
Jake

habitat_gardener · December 24, 2009

I had an aunt who made beautiful leaf mold in NJ by raking her leaves to the edge of her dropoff and letting them decay for 3 years.

You could speed it up by turning it, watering each layer as you go. Or, if by some miracle the leaves are still dry, you could pulverize them to speed up decomposition.

Do you need leaf mold or a fungal-dominated compost for acid-loving perennials, shrubs, or trees? According to the book Teaming with Microbes, you will still get a fungal-dominated compost with 40-50 percent brown leaves or wood chips, 45 to 50 percent fresh grass clippings, and 5 to 10 percent alfalfa meal -- that's a lot of "greens"! You have enough leaves that you could experiment with adding coffee grounds to some of them. Any "greens" (including coffee grounds) will speed up composting.

I googled to find out the definition of leaf mold, and this article still calls it leaf mold if you add some greens to speed up the process.
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/...leaf-mold.aspx

ssi912 · December 28, 2009

take your lawn mower and mow the leaves with the bag attachment off mower.
I would personally put them in a container. i buy the waist high roughneck cans, with a lid from wally world, i think 8 dollars. Drill a bunch of 1.5 inch holes in bottom. Throw in a few shovel fulls of garden soil and add other organic material. you could try to throw garden soil in the leaf pile, full of micro organisms. the barrel approach works for me, just add a bunch of leaves to the barrel every so often. the leaves will be poofy at first, but will break down considerably quite fast. i think the coffe grounds would work there way through the pile and end up in the dirt under the leaf pile.

rhynes_boomer · December 29, 2009

Hi ssi912,

Would this also keep soil from washing away? I have alot of leaves every year and I always use to protect flowers and strawberries along with straw, but, I have been doing away with it after the frost?

Kat

ssi912 · December 30, 2009

Im not sure I understand the question. Would coffee grounds keep the soil from eroding? No. Let me know.

rhynes_boomer · December 30, 2009

Hi ssi912,

I was talking about the chopped up leaves & straw, would that keep my soil from washing away. I am having trouble with my soil washing out, here in Oklahoma, when it rains sometimes it's just a little then sometimes it's a gully washer?

I didn't used to have this problem, but, a little Mall was built behind where I live and they got just as close as they could to my lot and right up against my fencing where the garden is and now my garden has went down quite a bit in the last 2-3 years.

I have used metal sheets along the fence area to try and keep it from running out from underneath. It has slowed down , but, not stopped it?

Kat

darwinslair · December 30, 2009

you could try undersowing everything you grow with a low-growing legume, so that you have no bare soil to wash away. Elliot Coleman goes into that in some depth in his book The New Organic Grower. If your garden is not on a huge scale you would not need any machinery to do it, just the right seeds to use.

Tom

ssi912 · December 30, 2009

it seems like the mall builders changed the grade of the ground behind you. when it rains, does it drain towards the mall? if it does, you will have to plant some bushes/shrubs, maybe, along the fence line. if you had enough sun you could use blackberries or something along that nature. adding the materials you listed above that you usually mulch with would not help. they would just was away once they were broke down to smaller aggergate. i would not throw away winter mulch. i would not incorporate into that years garden though. i would set those materials to the side and them incorporate into soil at the end of the growing season. straw and leaves are some of the best and inexspensive soil conditioner. you could get some wood chips and add at the same time as well. call some local tree trimming companies and see if they will give you a load of wood chips for free. it saves them from having to pay to dump them. never pay for tree trimming co.'s wood chips no matter what they say. it is helping the company to dump them for free at a residence than pay at private dump. i know, i own a tree company. i could give more ideas about erosion if you could explain the pronlem in detail.

rhynes_boomer · December 31, 2009

Hi ssi912,

Yes, it goes toward the mall. Wood chips sounds doable. I will check into it. Also, I have just started noticing more in the last couple of years. Where the fence posts are is where I seem to be loosing my soil.

If I can get the wood chips I can have them put on the back side of my fence and inside where my garden is. I already have metal sheets holding back alot of it. My main problem is where the post are.

I had even thought about a small concrete block border just along the fence line? Maybe that and the woodchips would fix my problem.

I want to add more soil and manure to my garden for this year, but, I want to get the problem fixed first.

Thanks for the advice!

Kat

December 23, 2009	#1
Jake L. Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: New Jersey Posts: 3	Leaf Mold Hello. At my other house that we will be moving into, we have a 50 square feet of piled leaves about 10 feet high. Leaf mold is being made at the moment in the center and near the bottoms. Is it possible that I could add used coffee grounds to the leaves to make leaf mold faster, or would it just be ordinary compost rather than leaf mold? Thanks, Jake

December 24, 2009	#2
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	I had an aunt who made beautiful leaf mold in NJ by raking her leaves to the edge of her dropoff and letting them decay for 3 years. You could speed it up by turning it, watering each layer as you go. Or, if by some miracle the leaves are still dry, you could pulverize them to speed up decomposition. Do you need leaf mold or a fungal-dominated compost for acid-loving perennials, shrubs, or trees? According to the book Teaming with Microbes, you will still get a fungal-dominated compost with 40-50 percent brown leaves or wood chips, 45 to 50 percent fresh grass clippings, and 5 to 10 percent alfalfa meal -- that's a lot of "greens"! You have enough leaves that you could experiment with adding coffee grounds to some of them. Any "greens" (including coffee grounds) will speed up composting. I googled to find out the definition of leaf mold, and this article still calls it leaf mold if you add some greens to speed up the process. http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/...leaf-mold.aspx

December 28, 2009	#3
ssi912 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: St. Simons Island, Ga. Posts: 83	take your lawn mower and mow the leaves with the bag attachment off mower. I would personally put them in a container. i buy the waist high roughneck cans, with a lid from wally world, i think 8 dollars. Drill a bunch of 1.5 inch holes in bottom. Throw in a few shovel fulls of garden soil and add other organic material. you could try to throw garden soil in the leaf pile, full of micro organisms. the barrel approach works for me, just add a bunch of leaves to the barrel every so often. the leaves will be poofy at first, but will break down considerably quite fast. i think the coffe grounds would work there way through the pile and end up in the dirt under the leaf pile.

December 29, 2009	#4
rhynes_boomer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Muskogee, Ok. Posts: 35	Hi ssi912, Would this also keep soil from washing away? I have alot of leaves every year and I always use to protect flowers and strawberries along with straw, but, I have been doing away with it after the frost? Kat

December 30, 2009	#5
ssi912 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: St. Simons Island, Ga. Posts: 83	Im not sure I understand the question. Would coffee grounds keep the soil from eroding? No. Let me know.

December 30, 2009	#7
darwinslair Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Lake Minnetonka MN Posts: 229	you could try undersowing everything you grow with a low-growing legume, so that you have no bare soil to wash away. Elliot Coleman goes into that in some depth in his book The New Organic Grower. If your garden is not on a huge scale you would not need any machinery to do it, just the right seeds to use. Tom

December 31, 2009	#9
rhynes_boomer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Muskogee, Ok. Posts: 35	Hi ssi912, Yes, it goes toward the mall. Wood chips sounds doable. I will check into it. Also, I have just started noticing more in the last couple of years. Where the fence posts are is where I seem to be loosing my soil. If I can get the wood chips I can have them put on the back side of my fence and inside where my garden is. I already have metal sheets holding back alot of it. My main problem is where the post are. I had even thought about a small concrete block border just along the fence line? Maybe that and the woodchips would fix my problem. I want to add more soil and manure to my garden for this year, but, I want to get the problem fixed first. Thanks for the advice! Kat