garden
leafage mold is what nature has been doing since there were tree . The leave come , and over time they break out down into a nutrient bed on the forest trading floor . If you walk in the wood , you ’re walk on decades of leafage modeling .
Leaf mold is often referred to as compost but they are not the same thing . If you put leave on your compost wad they will compost down with the grass and kitchen trash etc and the result black amber is compost . This is a process ofbacterialdecay , serve by heat and worm . It ’s comparatively tight , taking a few months to get practiced functional garden compost . In dividing line , folio cast is the resultant role of a much longer physical process offungaldecay . This is a nerveless ( ie not hot ) summons and can take 2 to 3 years to render a final Cartesian product that can be used as an fixings in seed sowing or potting mix .
The fashioning of leaf mould is almost child ’s play . The easy way is to make a form of batting cage from canes and telegram mesh , about 3 feet square and deep is salutary , bragging if there ’s room . meet with leaves , wet down , top up with more leaves , wet again and track with a tarpaulin . Wait two years , possibly three , maybe wrick it a few times .
The really , reallyeasy way is to overeat a shameful bin liner with leaves , wet them , top up and broadly tie the grip . Poke some holes in the bag with a garden fork then leave them somewhere out of the room for two or three years , hold the bags a shuggle every now and again .
I choose the really , reallyeasy path . I do n’t have many overhanging trees so , much to my child ’s entertainment , I went to my local park equip with a rake and ABA transit number dish . It was the work of but a few minutes to fill up up a XII handbag with sycamore leaves . Here is last year ’s batch , minding its own stage business between the shed and the greenhouse .
It got to the point last year where passing a cumulation of leaves would cause me almost physical nuisance at the barren . This year I will getallthe leafage ! I might leave alone some for you . Punverymuch intended .
This is what mine looks like after about ten month . It ’s somewhat well go down , but not yet the fine puke that is the finished product .
If two or three age seems like a prospicient time to look , there are options . After a class the partially decayed leaf thing can be used as a very dear mulch , apply on the borders or vegetable bed in the leap . The worm love it and will take it down into the ground in forked quick time . It ’s good for ground structure and felicitous worms mean happy soil .
The physical process can be made to go quicker if the leaves are chopped up first , using a shredder or a lawn mower . I also understand that oak , hornbeam and birch tree make excellent leafage mold and also faster than big thick leaves like sycamore or chestnut which take longer to break down . Regardless of the folio type and method acting , the cognitive process involve moisture to work – an occasional squirt with a hose is enough .
It ’s a irksome process so the significant affair is to make a batch every year , then after an initial wait for the first batch , you ’ll have an annual provision . The fungal disintegration process reduces the volume of fabric to about a quarter of what went in at the start , so more is more in this case .
The finished product can be used as seed compost , or as a ingredient in a potting mix , along with garden compost and some gumption . In either case it needs screen out first really .
It ’s quite autumnal out now , so I shall soon be off to the parking area again , look for some good oak trees this clip .
I ’ll be back shortly with more propagating nothingness .
