Autumn leaves - don’t leaf them lying around, turn them into garden gold!
As Autumn turns to winter and the trees shed the last of their golden leaves, many of us will have a bit of clearing up to do in our outdoor spaces.
Instead of seeing those leaves as a chore, why not view them as nature’s very own recycling programme? Leaves can provide a free stash of fertiliser, mulch and habitat for wildlife. Here’s how to turn a leafy nuisance into a leafy bonus.
Make “leafmould”
Instead of bagging up leaves for the bin (and sending them to landfill), you can pile them up — and in time, they'll “rot down” into rich, crumbly leafmould, a type of compost. This stuff is gardening gold: a fabulous soil conditioner, mulch and even a base for seed-sowing compost.
Rake or gather your fallen leaves, pop them into a breathable bag or a simple chicken-wire “leaf bin”, moisten them if they’re dry, and wait. Over a year or two, microbes and fungi turn them into dark, crumbly goodness.
Some leaves — like oak, beech or hornbeam — break down nicely with little fuss. If yours are thicker or leathery (think sycamore, walnut, horse-chestnut), it’s worth shredding them first (for example by mowing over them) to speed things up.
You can use leafmould as a mulch around borders, shrubs and veg beds, a soil improver to enrich beds before planting and part of a potting or seed-sowing compost.
Shred and mulch
No room to compost? No problem. You can shred your leaves (the lawnmower works a treat, dry leaves only, mind you!), then scatter them as a mulch layer over your garden beds, fruit bushes or under trees. That leafy blanket helps suppress weeds, retain soil moisture and slowly release nutrients as the leaves decompose.
A shredded-leaf mulch layer of around 5 to 8 cm generally does the trick — but as with any mulch, keep it away from plant stems and crowns to avoid smothering.
Add them to your compost heap
If you already compost kitchen scraps or grass clippings, fallen leaves are a fantastic “brown” carbon-rich material to throw in. But because they’re so much carbon to little nitrogen, it’s best to mix them with “greens” (grass clippings, veggie peelings etc.) to help everything break down nicely.
If you’ve got lots of leaves, you might overwhelm the compost, another reason leafmould or mulching might be smarter for the bulk of them.
Take a look at some gardening compost solutions.
Create a cosy wildlife hideaway (aka a 'leave-the-leaves' corner)
If you like a low-effort gardening tip you'll like this one - leave a corner of your garden a bit messy. Piles of leaves lying under hedges, shrubs or near borders give insects, hedgehogs, frogs and other garden critters a safe winter shelter. It’s like a tiny nature reserve right in your garden.
In short: autumn leaves aren’t rubbish, they’re nature’s free gift to your garden. Whether you want to compost, mulch, create soil-loving leafmould or give wildlife a winter bed, there are loads of eco-friendly, sustainable ways to use them.