Monday, November 05, 2012

A veritable maple leaf frenzy


My neighbours maple. About forty feet across?
Here is a pictorial of what I spent three to four hours doing yesterday. About twenty wheelbarrows worth. For the first time since last year, I worked so hard and bent over so much....I woke up with a VERY sore back. Neck's not that great either. But, I got the job done, and last nights wind storm didn't blow too many of them away.
A quarter done
Very clay soil bed before

After. With about a foot of leaves piled on top. First I dug the whole bed down about a foot. Huge, wet heavy clay hunks. I took some veg scraps and lots of leaves, layered it on the bed and started putting the clay back in place. I broke the clay up and mixed leaves as much as I could. I took the last leaves and laid them on the ground where I'm going to kill grass next year around dwarf apples. What doesn't break down in the bed over winter, will get raked over onto the lawn.

Some under the holly
And...done

1 comment:

  1. Erin, if you run a lawn mower or tractor over the leaves 4 or 5 times, you will dramatically reduce the volume. The smaller pieces make instant leaf mold, and will not blow about like the full size leaves. You can use the mower to make furrows of leaves, so you don't rake the whole area either. What little pieces that stay on the ground under the tree compost in just a few days, benefiting the tree. Makes GREAT stuff.

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