Follow along with Laura from Garden Answer as she demonstrates how to turn fallen leaves into a powerful soil booster using leaf mulch in her garden beds. She starts by gathering and shredding leaves with her lawn mower, this helps with breaking down the leaves and preventing the formation of a thick mat layer that prevents water and air movement.
Laura adds Espoma Organic Blood Meal to balance the carbon-rich leaves with a nitrogen source, creating an ideal mix for a quick breakdown of the leaves and soil nourishment. A leaf mulch layer can be a natural insulator for delicate plants, shielding them from winter chill and enriching the soil for the next season.
In this fall episode of Garden Answer, Laura is making leaf mulch from her fallen leaves. It’s a free resource that will help build healthy soil. Instead of going to all the trouble of bagging leaves, recycle them.
She begins by blowing all of her leaves onto an open grassy
area and mulch mowing them. Laura has a
large riding lawn mower but you can get the same results with a regular walk-behind
model. Just go back and forth until the foliage is fairly small and then attach
the bag to suck them up.
Laura wants to enrich the empty raised beds in her vegetable
garden. She pours about two inches of shredded leaves on the top of each one.
Followed by a sprinkling of Espoma’s
organic Blood Meal. She’s creating a
mini compost pile. In summer, grass clippings would provide the nitrogen to
help break down the leaves. Since she isn’t cutting grass anymore, she uses the
blood meal as an organic nitrogen supplement.
Blood meal may keep plant-eating pests away but it can
attract meat-eaters like dogs, raccoons, and possums. If that would be a potential
problem, put the two inches of shredded leaves down and wait until spring to
add Espoma’s organic
Garden-tone.
More leaves? Try making leaf mold. It might sound terrible
but it’s a fantastic soil conditioner. It improves soil structure, helps the soil
retain moisture and creates the perfect habitat for beneficial microbes. Simply
take shredded leaves and pile them up in a wire bin or a quiet corner of the
yard. The following spring you will have the most beautiful, natural-looking
mulch for garden beds. It’s gardeners’ gold.
Here are a few more videos from Garden Answer we hope you
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