You might think that there is nothing more satisfying on a cold winters day than to rake up the fallen leaves and set light to them. The smell of the fire is so quintessential autumn.
However, despite the satisfaction that you might get from this, burning autumn leaves is the very last thing that the organic gardener and the concerned environmentalist should do.
The smoke is much more harmful to your health then cigarette smoke and it pollutes the atmosphere and also makes conditions very unpleasant for people who live around the area.
Every thing else apart; burning leaves is a waste of money and in this day and age who can afford to do that.
Why burn leaves when they can be put to very good use in or on the garden, for leaves make an excellent free soil conditioner.
Nature drops the leaves right on the soil to rot down and feed the soil.
That is just what we should do with our leaves; apply them directly to the soil as surface mulch where the worms will come along and turn them into compost and so build up the soil.
The only problem with using leaves in this way is that they are unlikely to stay put because the first strong wind will scatter then all over the place again.
The answer to this little problem is to make the leaves into leaf mould, which is nothing, more then rotted leaves.
The process is simplicity itself; moist leaves are stacked up in to a heap and ignored for a year. The decay organisms are very different from those involved in a compost heap. In this case the organisms are fungi that work slower then worms but in the long run they will turn the heap of leaves into very good martial to put in to or on your soil.
The process of making leaf mould can be speeded up a bit by shredding the leaves before heaping them up. The best way I find to do this is to pick them up with a lawn mower or you can use a garden compost shredder.
Any grass that you pick up with the lawn mower will just mix in with the leaves and this will help to speed up the process slightly.
The average garden does not have a great harvest of leaves so, as leaf mould is such a useful material it is well worthwhile of searching out other sources of supply.
Have a look round you local area, parks, schools, and cemeteries and seek permission to collect them, or offer your yard as a place for them to dump a lorry load or two. This is a very good idea because in the main these people normally have to pay to dump leaves and if give them a space for free you are both in a win win situation.
Do not accept leaves that have been picked up off the street for it will be full of bits of grit.
It is really is worth getting into making leaf mould as it is one of the long-lasting of organic materials that you can use on you garden