View from thep Vegetable atch
Mulch, mulch, glorious mulch... How to build your leaf heap while looking out for spiky sleepers
Most of the leaves have now fallen from the trees and if you practice the system of “no-dig” cultivation on your vegetable patch, then no doubt you will have stored as many as possible in order to transform them into leafmould.
No-dig isn’t just easier on the back than the conventional method of digging over the plot but its advocates also claim that it produces better yields and healthier soil.
They argue that digging breaks down the essential structure of soil, whereas piling mulch on the surface adds nutrients, preserves moisture, suppresses weeds and encourages worms to do the hard work of aeration.
It is a view that is gaining traction but the only downside is that it takes very large quantities of mulch in order to work. So where are you going to get this mulch from?
Well, making your own compost is the obvious solution but that’s unlikely to produce enough for your needs, so you may have to look for other sources, including manure if you can get your hands on it and the green waste that’s made and sold by many local authorities.
One way that you can boost home production is by offering to rake up your neighbour’s leaves and take them off their hands, as well as by composting things that otherwise might end up in the recycling bin, such as cardboard and green waste from the kitchen.
Mulching isn’t just for the veg plot. Its beneficial effects work just as well in the flower borders too but here you have to ensure that it doesn’t pile up around the trunks of shrubs and trees, and also that peonies are not buried deeply, which will cause them to stop flowering.
Leaves can take up to two years to break down, especially beech leaves which are among the last to fall and which are very tough, but you can speed up the process by either running over them with a lawnmower or chopping them into tiny pieces with a spade once they are packed into sacks.
Just make sure that, if you have left your leaf heap unattended for a while before you start chopping, that hibernating hedgehogs haven’t taken up residence in the meantime.