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Joined: 8/24/2009
Posts: 5
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I built raised garden beds out of cedar boards this year for my vegetables. This Fall, I am going to rake up the leaves in my yard, and go over the pile with a mulching mower to shred/chip the leaves. Can I take these mulched leaves and directly pile them on top of the soil in my raised beds, or should I dig them into the soil a little? I want to do either of the above this Fall and let it decompose over the winter. I use shredded bark as a mulch year round to control erosion, etc..
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Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 34
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Sounds like you have a great plan. Mulched leaves can be worked into soil now or in the spring. I'd do now, then early warmth and moisture of spring will decompose those leaves even faster.
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Joined: 10/5/2009
Posts: 92
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Any amendment to the soil is a good thing. Just be careful when you add raw leaves. They are hard to break down. The finer you can grind them, the better! If you have a ton of leaves, you might be better off making a compost pile. Put them in the composter this year and amend your soil with someone elses compost this year. You can return the favor next fall when your compost bin gives you "Black Gold!". Compost is always better than raw. Whatever you do, just remember that your soil can only "break down" a limited amount of fresh material. Unless you want to allow it to sit idle for a season. I doubt that you want to do that! If you do use raw leaves, till and till some more! It will all workout in the end. Good Luck! Del
Master Gardener, Master Naturalist, B.S. Biology, Masters in Horticulture. Missouri resident transplanted from Iowa. The dirt is not the same!
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Joined: 8/24/2009
Posts: 5
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Thanks for all of the advice! I shredded/mulched the leaves as small as I could get them with a mulching mower, and dug them into the soil. I didn't put in a real heavy layer...just enough to mix in. If I were to add fertilizer to the soil this fall, would the extra nitrogen also allow the leaves to break down faster?
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Joined: 2/18/2008
Posts: 335
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Hi gc, Unless you are in one of the southern states where it stays warm a good share of the year, you don't want to add any fertilizer to the soil right now. First and foremost, rains and wet climes will wash out the fertilizer more than you want to risk. Also, other plants in the soil, will be motivated to grow when they should be building up their energy for spring growth. This energy withdrawal can if growth is severe, kill your plants. My great-aunt used to say that they will "bloom themselves to death". There are no limits on putting organic material into your soil. So, I would put out all the leaves you want to amend your soil in the raised box. If you have access to horse manure, I would put in as much of that as you can. The difference with horse/cow is that cow is "fine ground" while horse is "coarse" ground. Let this leach down into the soil with the winter weathers. This will do a lot more for your soil than adding synthetic fertilizers. The difference between organic and synthetic fertilizers: organic: requires the micro organisms in the soil to extract the full benefit synthetic: does not require anything to break it down, but water. Some varieties contain salts in the fertilizer molecule and can build up in the soil and eventually are more dentrimental than beneficial. I hope I answered your questions. If you find grasses coming up in your bed where you don't want them, cover them with a few inches of whole leaves. This will suffocate the grasses and solves your problem naturally. Over the course of the winter, the leaves will break down and will be ready for you to incorporate them in the spring.
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Joined: 8/24/2009
Posts: 5
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Thanks! Right now, the beds are "empty". I don't have anything growing in them or planted in them. I have the soil covered with a light bark mulch to protect the soil. I just built these beds this past Spring/Summer. They are made out of cedar boards. I filled them with a mixture of top soil and peat moss. I know I have a ways to go to continue building a quality soil, so this Fall I started to add mulched leaves to it. What I understand is that as the leaves decompose, it can draw alot of the nitrogen from the soil during this process. That is why I was considering adding a light fertilizer to the beds during the winter to replenish whatever may be used. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.
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Joined: 6/7/2009
Posts: 1
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Put the leaves in a plastic trash can and use a string trimmer to shred them. You will be surprised how fine this grinds them up!
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