Cape Town - Autumn has been particularly glorious this year. With bouts of cold in the past month, the oaks, elms, poplars and gingkos have turned into torches of glorious red, bronze, burnished gold and copper, with their leaves slowly falling.
Instead of raking up your leaves and throwing them away, take note that May is the time for you to turn dry autumn leaves into black gold. This can be done by using leaves as ingredients in one of two recipes: leaf mould or composting.
By collecting, storing and moistening autumn leaves, you can create leaf mould for your garden.
Alternatively, lay dry brown leaves and wet green kitchen vegetable scraps in layers to create compost. Both recipes will see your leaves turned into nutrients which will enrich your soil and improve the health of your plants.
Follow this step-by-step guide:
Leaf mould:
Fallen leaves are the main ingredient for creating leaf mould, one of nature’s greatest soil conditioners. Collect leaves, moisten them so they will rot more quickly, and store in a black plastic bag that has a few holes made with a fork, then tie the top loosely.
Store the bags in a secluded part of the garden. Alternatively, make a cage from chicken wire netting and line with cardboard to prevent the leaves from drying out. Turn the pile occasionally and keep it moist.
Some leaves will break down quicker than others. You can break up leaves by putting them through a shredder, or by making them into a pile and running the mower back and forth over them a few times.
Converting leaves into leaf mould is a slow process that can take a year or more, but is well worthwhile. When it is black, crumbly and sweet-smelling, it is ready to use as mulch or as a seed-sowing compost.
How to make compost:
Compost breaks up clay soils and improves sandy soils. A healthy soil that is rich in organic matter, natural minerals, microbial activity and earthworms is the first and most important step to having a beautiful and productive garden.
If you have the space, develop a compost heap. A compost bin will take up less space, particularly in small gardens.
The most successful compost is made by ensuring there is sufficient air, heat and moisture to create conditions for micro-organisms. When there is sufficient heat generated by decomposing material, this will kill off any pests, diseases and weeds, and this can only be done if each layer (apart from lawn clippings, which should be spread thinly to avoid compaction) that is added is spread thickly, and the compost moistened after each layer is added. Large material will break down more quickly if it is cut into smaller pieces.
A compost heap can be enclosed by wood slats (without a base), or a cage made from wire netting. Make the compost heap in a secluded part of the garden on bare earth with a 10cm layer of twigs to allow air circulation.
Add alternate layers of brown (dry) leaves and green (wet) material in the proportion of two-thirds brown to one-third green. A dry layer should be followed by a layer of garden soil topped by a dressing of well-rotted manure. Grass clippings should be spread in a thin layer to avoid compacting. Dampen down each layer.
The pile should be kept moist, but not wet. Repeat layers until the heap is about a metre high. To keep in warmth and moisture, and encourage bacteria, the compost heap can be covered with a tarpaulin, sacks or an old carpet.
Leave this heap for about six weeks and start another heap alongside. During the six weeks, keep the compost heap damp and regularly turned, until it becomes rich black compost.
Tips for composting:
* Green material keeps compost moist. For the green layers, use vegetable peelings, crushed eggshells, shrub and hedge trimmings, spent annuals, tea leaves and coffee granules,and fruit peelings if they have not been sprayed with pesticides.
* Dry material creates air pockets. Successful compost heaps include brown layers comprising dry leaves, twigs, small branches, shredded paper (not glossy paper that contains coloured inks), cardboard, cardboard egg cartons.
* There are a host of materials which should never be used in a compost heap. These include cooked food, anything greasy, dairy products, meat, bones, fish, cat or dog waste, cat litter, diseased plants.
Trench composting:
As an alternative to making a compost heap, trench composting is a method that is suitable for growing vegetables. A trench is dug to a depth of two to three spades, and the soil placed on one side.
Then a thick layer of wet newspaper is placed in the bottom of the trench, which is then filled with vegetable peelings, leaves and any other plant material that is available, alternating with layers of soil. Vegetables are then planted immediately in the filled trench
. - Weekend Argus