I have some leaf piles that I wet with the hose when I am out there and they are decomposing nicely. Not as fast as hot, but better than nothing. They will go into the composter when I have green to go with them. Best of both worlds. I just can't throw away leaves.

I have some leaf piles that I wet with the hose when I am out there and they are decomposing nicely. Not as fast as hot, but better than nothing. They will go into the composter when I have green to go with them. Best of both worlds. I just can't throw away leaves.

Oh, lordy, Ernie, at our new place, we are going to have miles of leaves! That will only add to the problem! I'd never burn them, which people around here do regularly. What I've got right now is cardboard to the max. It's a new house and lots of furniture and other things are arriving. I just don't want it going to landfill. I have to find a solution. Somehow. I'm feeling overwhelmed. Wetting it is a start, but it will continue to pile up, and without green matter...years and years. I can't have a 20 foot pile of cardboard in my back yard forever. The neighbors would have us jailed!

I use most of my paper/card in my compost. If I accumulate more than I can use, it goes in the recycling.

Tree leaves, even when brown, have a Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of between 40 to 1 and 80 to 1 so early on after falling they could almost be digested without the need for additional Nitrogen. Most brown material, given half a chance, will also be digested without the addition of Nitrogen although adding some can speed the process.
Particle size, moisture levels, and volume affect the digestion of the material almost as much as does Nitrogen which the bacteria at work digesting that material use as a nutrient source. To a point, the more Nitrogen available in the mix that faster they will work, all else being in the right range.

To save some money, I'd go with grass clippings, manure, used coffee grounds and/or alfalfa meal(rabbit n horse feed).

If it's moving boxes, post them on Craigslist in the FREE section and someone will come get them. OR use the cardboard as the botto0m layer in lasagna gardening beds or under mulch in shrub borders.

If you keep it damp, even pure cardboard will decompose, and fairly quickly. The trick is to pile it, wet it, tamp it down and forget it except for keeping it damp.

If you want it to decompose faster, shred it, and wet the pile every foot or so with a solution of any high-nitrogen fertilizer and water - 1/4 cup of fertilizer in a watering can full of water is plenty. If you happen to have high-nitrogen stuff like chicken poop, a couple of inches of that workd well.

As for leaves, pile them, dampen them, tamp them down and leave them over the winter. You should have compost in the spring in the center of that pile.

I have a compost pile I made less than 2 months ago, filled with nothing but old dead leaves and dead grass. As soon as I thoroughly soaked it, it got modestly hot in the middle and sank about 10% of its height. It is making compost in there with none of the fancy ratios or purchased nitrogen sources.

Yup, my leaf piles have shrunk probably to less than half their size since last fall. Once in a while I go out and rake them out, then back to their original place, a ring around each tree. I figure it can offer some fertilization at the same time. I have a lot of wood lice which get under there and do a great job. Underneath will be fine crumbly dark soil. At no cost and little effort.

I break down my cardboard and layer it on my garden pathways. The more layers the better. Mulch over the top and forget about weeds for a year or two. You can look under the cardboard for your fishing worms as well :)

dow, I see you're in MO, so welcome! That is if you've moved from out of state, maybe you just moved down the road.

I assume there are no recycling dropoffs located near you? This is true in a lot of places, esp. rural areas, and sometimes city folk forget how hard it is for others to recycle. But if there is ANYwhere, I would take your cardboard there.

I have 16A of woods and I've started a big leaf pile, using a piece of fence in a circle. Pile em in and let nature do its slow act to make leaf mold compost. It takes more time but very little effort, and the results will impress you!

Pee on it!