Give me those Leaves...Please?

[Pharmer Phil]

Some folks DON'T have a bizzillion Trees in the yard for them to gather HUGE amounts of leaves! Ask a Neighbor, be a Leaf Bandit ( all those bags of leaves sitting by the curve)Mwa Ha Ha It IS best to shred them; however, if you can get them tilled or plowed into the soil, then..(my SECRET) Over spray them (or drech with a bucket) with 3 ounces of LIQUID MOLASSES, the kind you get at any equine supply store)per gallon of warm water.
This makes organic matter break down rapidly and feeds those ;i; microbes in the soil! The earth worms LUV it and YOU will see a big difference in both your soil and your worm population. The Molasses is also an Excellent compost accelerator .

[Bump]

Phil ...I've got a couple of live "composters" (horses) that I use their manure for soil buildup...When I muck out the barn I dump the road apples in several piles and let set awhile to decompose even more...by using diferent piles there's always one ready to use....

[Laura]

When You " MUCK OUT THE BARN" ?? clean it?? Im a city slicker so some of these terms are funny to me.. ;D

[Pharmer Phil]

Bump. Yep you got some of the best composters there is...Hey bump, probably best to SHOW Laura what Mucking out a barn is(she would Love it!)....Silly City gurl

[Bump]

Laura 'bout the only way to describe it is "shoveling the ........well you now what I mean. ;D ;D ;D ........it's a term for cleaning out the horse stalls .. you'd be surprised at how much is gathered on a daily basis........

[YB]

I collect leaves myself from my mothers and her neighbors homes. I make my own compost with the leaves, grass and other organic material. Got a nice load this year and one waiting for next year... I will have to try Phils Molasses idea.. My pile usually gets up to 140-160 degrees. I turn mine by hand. Good exercise.

Greetings Bump and Laura (aka FireBug) and Captain Phil >

[YB]

mastercomposter.com/

One of my favorite sites for composting information. I especially like the section on ingrediants and the forum.
Give it a try...

[Bump]

howdy YB.....don't even want to start thinking of gathering up leaves yet , they're just starting to fall here....

[lilsparrow]

Our leaves fell in August and Sept! It looks so funny down here after the hurricanes. You'd swear it were April and the leaves just getting ready to bud! Well, some of them anyway. Alot of them are still OK though. We lost our compost pile from the heavy equipment we had to use for the debris (tree) removal after 2 of the storms. Getting it restarted now though.Thanks for the Molasses tip, never heard of that before.

[YB]

I just brought home 4 big bags of leaves. I still had a lot left over from last year. I got a small chipper but I need to find a cheap way to chop them up. A lawn mower isnt feasable, It doesn't do a good enough job. I have yet to find the molasses yet. We have been having some high winds lately, most of the trees have shed. Now starts the time of year I hate, bare trees, cold. I will wait for spring.

[Pharmer Phil]

YB. here there are stores, a local chain, called Fleet Farm, they have Everything,it's like a farm center, the molasses is in with the horse feed and sometimes they have it with the salt blocks.Hope this helps, you could use regular. unsulphered molasses, but it would cost more bucks

[YB]

Thanks Phil, I will call our local Agway and Tractor supply stores and see if they stock it.

[DougfromMN]

I bought about 2.5 gallons of feed grade, liquid molasses for about $8 at a local farm supply store.

Doug

[DougfromMN]

I bought about 2.5 gallons of feed grade, liquid molasses for about $8 at a local farm supply store.

Doug

[jeanette]

i'm too lazy to compost besides we have no animals and a lot of black walnut trees bad bad bad stuff for plants.

[YB]

Do you harvest the walnuts or just let em fall?? Those trees can kill a lot of plants.. Does grass grow under yours???

[Sheri]

I thought I had read somewhere not to put animal feces in the compost pile. Something about parasites. I started composting 3 ago. We have a bizillion trees so lots of leaves. So many in fact that I wish someone would come and get some of them. It's like spring here now, and today I used 4 wheelbarrows full of compost out of the pile. It's nice when you see that dark, rich, compost. Hopefully, doing some yard work this weekend will make things easier around here come spring.

[Pharmer Phil]

Animal Feces such as Horse,sheep,cow,chicken,rabbit,goat,etc can be used,BUT, Not the feces of any Omni or carnivore (Dog, Cat or Human, anything that eats Meat!)
Compost those leaves, if you do not have a chipper, mow them a lil and that will help break them down, then simply spred them on your garden. Try the Molasses I mentioned in a earlier post in this thread, it really speeds composting, both in your compost pile and your garden, also the added benefit is it feed the microbes and increases your earthworm population. Healthy soil is dependent on Living microorganisms.

[YB]

Hi Sheri, nice to see you on here again.

You don't want to use pet poop in your compost. I always recommend people to go to the following URL. gives you all the info you need to have a succesful compost pile.

mastercomposter.com/

[Sheri]

I do compost a lot of the leaves, but I don't want to get too much brown in t here. I'm talking about tons of leaves. We run over some of them with the mower too.

[Jerry]

Leftover/flat non-diet colas are great to add to your compost to help accelerate decomposition, for most people it's more available than mollasses (sugars, kind of like feeding yeast) except your feeding the bacteria to help keep it lively(and the moisture dosn't hurt)

[Jerry]

Just dawned(oops I said it) on me. Thought of a use for snow fence out here in the flatlands. They should work for leaves in the fall. But we have to get em befoire the wind changes otherwise all is lost.

[Pharmer Phil]

ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO
You said it brotha

[jeanette]

that works for corn husks to, and those dang plastic grocery sacks Shaking

[seadog]

If you're particular about organic be careful about leaves from the local park. Sometimes they use systemic poisons esp for aphids. :red_eyes:

[hunter63]

I'm a leaf mower also, been doing it for years, much to the neighbor’s amusement.
This was back when you could still burn them.

Now they have to be raked and bagged in a special bag (compostable), so the mowing of at least some of the leaves seems to be more popular. ( Ya think!)

Still pick them up for the compost bins, or rake them right over the garden, then cover with straw ( free at the curb after Halloween).

Haven't tilled in about 5 years except whatever "row" that I'm going to plant. Then just rake back, let dry out a couple of days, till 6" w/mini tiller, then plant. When plants are up, rake back.

Actually started doing this (keeping the garden mulched at all times) to keep the dogs feet from getting muddy, wife happy. Turns out that it's considered "Lasagna" gardening" and is similar to " The Ruth Stout Method" of heavy rotted hay mulch. Found this stuff out later.

Liked the compost site, but they said the home made "Pallet compost bins" rot after a couple of years, this has not been my experience. Have had two sets, of two, over 30 years and with a little patching the second set is still in good shape, first set turn into "compost"

Another thing, it has been my experience that alot of people ( they asked me) don't compost because that find the directions confusing, think that it "stinks", attracts rodents, and are afraid they will do it wrong.

Every thing "WILL ROT" given enough time and I tell them to MIX things (brown/green). Everything in moderation!!! (Sorta a life advice thing)
If my piles don't heat-up, so what, It will be ready in the next late spring, to side dress or mini till in my rows.

Remember "Gardening should be FUN" if not, it's a JOB.

Nothing relieves stress like pulling weeds or salting slugs after a hard day at the "office" (whatever the office might be.)
Yesterday was 56 degrees in S.W Wi, can't wait to plant!

[seadog]

I don't usually have enough volume to make hot compost so I let the worms do the job. It's slow and I usually have three piles going It takes two or three years to break down the big stuff like broccoli stems.
I never used anything like molasses . How much do you use? Maybe it would speed the process somewhat.
My soil is up to sixty four degrees under plastic tunnels and I'm planting peas, spinich and lettuce this weekend! I put up the coldframe this week and will plant onions in there and plant them out in April or May.

[hunter63]

I would think the molasses would attract ants?

[hillsidedigger]

My garden site, about an acre and a half is on a north facing slope with a flat wooded hollow at the bottom of the slope, so, all winter, I gather large plastic trash cans of raked-up leaf litter, woods dirt and worm castings from the wooded hollow bottom and tote them up the slope and spread (hope to do at least 500 trash cans full this winter).

I have placed several brush barriers across the hollow bottom so to catch as much natural erosion of leaves and dirt as possible (and nutrients previously placed on the garden, I use a limited amount of chemical fertilizer still, not desiring to have animals or truck manure).

[Pharmer Phil]

Acre and a half
Holy smokes....I too You...geez, and I thought I was a Maniac!!