The transition of fall color in North Georgia is probably the most beautiful time of the year to enjoy the outdoors.\u00a0 The show is so impressive that I have received calls from people with friends and family from out of state that plan their vacation to be here at the optimum time to enjoy the full color spectrum.<\/p>\n
If you have a yard with trees, you know this narrow window of beauty does not come cheap.\u00a0 Those bronze leaves today will mean small mountains of dried, brown leaves in your yard in a few short weeks.\u00a0 While the hours of blowing, raking, and shredding leaves is good exercise, it is just that if you bag these leaves and put them to the curb to be picked up.<\/p>\n
Leaves contain small amounts of\u00a0trace minerals drawn up by the deep roots of trees.\u00a0 When added to your garden, these leaves will feed the soil, improve the habitat for earthworms, and help to lighten that heavy clay soil that we all struggle with.\u00a0 Here are a few ways to put leaves to work for you.<\/p>\n
Start by shredding the leaves with a leaf shredder or running them over with a lawn mower.\u00a0 Shredding the leaves will help to speed up the decomposition by increasing the surface area.\u00a0 The increased surface area will allow more space for microbes to work and prevent the leaves from settling dense layers which decreases the space for air.<\/p>\n
Start using those shredded leaves by insulating your tender plants with a 6 inch blanket of leaves.\u00a0\u00a0 The extra insulation on fall veggies like carrots, beets, and kale should extend your harvest well past those first nights of freezing temperatures.\u00a0 Some perennials like lavender and scabiosa also do better with a good layer of leaves.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve protected the plants that need it, you can charge up your compost pile.\u00a0 Dry leaves are a great carbon source to balance all the greener nitrogen rich material you\u2019ve been adding all summer.\u00a0 The ideal ratio of carbon to nitrogen in your compost pile is about 25:1.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t have a compost pile, you can add them to your garden now.\u00a0 Simply mix them into the soil and by next spring, the earthworms and microbes will have done most of the work in breaking them down.<\/p>\n
Another great way to use those leaves is to make leaf mold.\u00a0 Leaf mold is essentially compost without the nitrogen sources like vegetable scraps or grass clippings.\u00a0 Because it lacks the nitrogen source, leaf mold is more of a soil conditioner than a fertility amendment in our soil, but that doesn\u2019t make it less valuable.<\/p>\n
Leaf mold can be made in as little as six months with very little work.\u00a0 The first method can be done by piling the leaves in a heap or into a wire bin.\u00a0 The pile should be at least three feet wide and tall.\u00a0 A pile that is smaller than this may dry up too fast and not have the insulating ability needed to maintain the decomposition process.\u00a0 Thoroughly dampen the pile when you start and then make sure it keeps a moisture level equivalent to a damp sponge.<\/p>\n
The second method requires keeping the leaves in large plastic bags.\u00a0 Fill the bags with leaves, moisten them a bit, tie the bag off, and then cut a couple holes in the side for air flow.\u00a0 Let it sit, checking it every month or two for moisture and to give the bag a shake or two to recharge the airflow.\u00a0 This method is great for the gardener who drives through neighborhoods to raid the bags of leaves on trash pick up days.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It should be noted that pecan and walnut leaves contain natural compounds that inhibit the growth of other plants, so be sure that leaves from these trees are thoroughly decomposed before adding them to your garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The transition of fall color in North Georgia is probably the most beautiful time of the year to enjoy the outdoors.\u00a0 The show is so impressive that I have received calls from people with friends and family from out of state that plan their vacation to be here at the optimum time to enjoy the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,4,63],"tags":[108,109,111,110],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-gardening","category-home-landscape","category-soil","tag-compost","tag-leaf-mold","tag-leaves-in-the-garden","tag-soil-amendment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}