Easy enough to figure out why Autumn is called Fall - just look around. No sooner do I put up my rake and leaf blower, it looks like I never got started.
Luckily, I have a high tolerance for fleeting disorder, even seeing leaf litter as garden decor (to a point, anyway). This approach was validated years ago when I tagged along with my Southern Living editor friends on a photo shoot during which they actually brought a bag of colorful leaves to scatter across the over-tidied garden for a realistic touch.
But a rustic smattering of colorful leaves is one thing; it’s quite another when they get ankle deep. So occasionally I have to round them up and find creative uses. I rake as many as I can, getting a mild workout while enjoying the simple tool’s throat-clearing sound and stimulating feel; like other quintessential tools, most of which I am the only moving part, it connects me sensually to the job at hand.
Then again, my powerful backpack leaf blower is a labor and time saver, helping corral hard-to-reach leaves, and quickly and easily neatening the flagstone patio, wood decks, and chipped slate walks before company arrives. The only real caveats associated with the gas-powered tool are the attendant cost of fuel and noise from the motor; next time around I’m going with a quiet but still efficient battery powered one.
I have several approaches to the big question of what to do with all the leaves. After blowing a few between shrubs and flowers as soil-building mulch, I strew bagsful over my raised bed garden, where worms will quickly come up at night and haul the windfall and its natural nutrients deep around plant roots, while creating paths for water and air and roots to penetrate more deeply.
I also make windrows that consolidate individual trees into narrow beds covering the area like mulch; over the winter the leaves break down quite nicely and make it easier to plant small shrubs and groundcovers. This is an easy way to break a large landscape up into smaller garden rooms, connecting trees and shrubs with mulch, plus it is crucial habitat for overwintering pollinators and other little beneficial critters.
What is left over is sent to the compost pile to break down over the winter. Large or slick leaves like magnolias compost more quickly if chopped or run over with a mower, but for the most part I just pile everything up and maybe stir it a time or two to keep things mixed up.
There are so many suggestions on how to make compost, but after working for years with the American Horticulture Society’s compost research park, and being a hard-core composter myself, I have come to the conclusion that there is really little need to do anything other than just pile stuff up, throw on some old compost to get things started, and mix it all up. This works like a charm.
If I wanted to speed things up, I’d definitely chop leaves into smaller bits and add a little nitrogen fertilizer to feed the beneficial bacteria that do the actual work. Grass clippings are rich in nitrogen but go with a light dusting of cotton seed meal which provides both nitrogen and protein to bulk up earthworms that do all the heavy lifting.
That’s it. Live with fallen leaves as long as I can stand it, then rake or blow them into beds, windrows, mulch areas, or a recycling leaf pile. But they will never get put in bags on the curb. Too valuable for that.
Felder Rushing
“The Gestalt Gardener”
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi
author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.
