Nature and Gardening

I feel like I'll be reposting this video a lot, but I love ✨ＬＥＡＦ　ＭＯＬＤ✨

In my garden, I took some chicken wire, a few stakes, and made a place for leaves, about 3-4 feet across.

Just like compost, mix it every few days and moisten it to the level of a damp sponge (appropriate for your climate). After a year (yes, a year), you'll have a pile of broken down organic matter, and a lovely leaf mold environment.

Also, Leaf mold breaks down leaves way faster when you already have a starter pile of it to add to from last year.

Please protect your piles of fallen leaves. Many, many species of insects rely on leaf piles to complete their reproduction process. For example, lightning bugs.

TL;DR: leave them where they fall.

Next best thing is mulch-mow them into the lawn.

If you have to collect them up, compost them in a pile, mix it up occasionally, eventually it'll become soil-like and fed it back to the garden.

An alternative to compost is a worm farm, you can feed it food scraps too.

@andrewrgross

1. Check if any neighbors want them.

2. If you compost, you have your carbon for the bin.

3. Mulch garden beds and walkways.

4. Rake into a pile around trees (but not touching the trunk - leave the collar exposed).

5. If you have a chipper, you could run them through and use for finer mulch or soil amendment.

Maybe next year she can leave them on the ground for insect habitat - feed the birds in the spring. Use mulching mower in the spring after the hatch.