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What's the best way to 'recycle' 20 bags of leaves...

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Aitchbee
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Posted November 14, 2011 at 9:54AM

This is the first time I have collected the leaves that have fallen from the two big trees, outside my flat.

I would like to make them into compost.

Has anybody had a go, at this endeavor?

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spuds

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Posted November 15, 2011 at 11:22AM

Perhaps a possible cautionary reminder, remember when forking, disturbing or setting fire to a compost heap, their might be residents hibernating there?.

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recap

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Posted November 16, 2011 at 1:56PM

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Aitchbee

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Posted November 16, 2011 at 2:18PM

Thanks recap - that's a great link. I was thinking of using a small food blender, (with sharp blades at the bottom), to chop up the leaves.If only I had a solar-powered leaf-shredder, then I would sleep easy.

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Forum Editor

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Posted November 16, 2011 at 7:50PM

"I was thinking of using a small food blender, (with sharp blades at the bottom), to chop up the leaves."

All 20 bags of them?

Take my advice - do no chopping. Make a heap of the leaves, turn them occasionally, and let bacteria do the rest, just as they do when the leaves fall in a forest. You'll end up with a lovely pile of leaf mould. There's no hurry, you can get another 20 bags next year, and in a few years you'll be the leaf mould king of the neighbourhood.

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Aitchbee

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Posted November 16, 2011 at 8:09PM

FE - I have got it sorted, regardin' the leaves. I have used the 'components of my 'little greenhouses' to construct a sturdy leaf area, in the evirons of my flat.The good weather has been a bonus. I might use a fine plastic mesh netting to keep the leaves in one place.I can keep an eye on them from my back windows, along with the bird stations...I have seen robins, blue-tits...and magpies today.

I wasn't jokin' about the sparklers.

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Aitchbee

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Posted November 16, 2011 at 8:32PM

The two trees: The very big tree at the back of my flat is 55 years old, and was named "BERTHA" by the planter, my neighbour informed me of this. I am not sure of the type of tree.

The front tree is a 'plane' tree.

I love watchin' 'em all year.

I gave "Bertha" a short back 'n' sides last week! She didn't mind.

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Diemmess

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Posted November 17, 2011 at 5:54PM

Has no one suggested stacking the bags and just leaving them in a quiet corner for two years?

My wife practically lives in the garden (the size of which appealed when we came here) and the only things that go in our green wheely are pernicious weeds, awkward roots and stumps.

Leaves go into one of a pair of 4' square wire netting cages, 2 years in one which then has any remainder bagged while the other accepts the latest gathering. Surplus leaves once bagged are stabbed for air penetration, stacked and left for the other half to use when potting and observing all those rituals which serious gardeners seem to cherish.

Boughs of trees are logged, while hedge trimmings and foliage of all sorts is shredded up to about an inch and a half, and the shreddings form a perfect mulch as weed and moisture control in the more shrubby areas.

Grass, soft plant leaves dead or alive, go to compost with layers of horse muck barrow-ed from over the road. Yes and any spare muck is stored in bags until needed, slowly becoming the same well rotted base for these rituals.

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Grey Goo

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Posted November 17, 2011 at 7:05PM

You could save a load of hassle and take them down the recycling site.

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Aitchbee

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Posted November 17, 2011 at 7:37PM

Thanks everyone again. The leaves ( I wish they were fivers) are now happily enclosed in a makeshift, but sturdy 'leaf-holder' which I constructed.It's got two sides re-enforced with solid iron fencing and the whole structure is lashed down. The leaf piles are weighted down with bricks.I will cover the whole thing with a tarpaulin when it gets very rainy.

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Aitchbee

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Posted November 17, 2011 at 8:01PM

FE - the small food-blender is a useful addition to the gardener's toolbag, for breaking down small quantities of bark and rough pieces of compost you get in shop-bought bags of compost.I don't use it for food....normally :o]

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