Leaf Mulch question

17 years ago

First a little background. We had lived in our other house for 20 years and did have a small garden and compost pile. We moved here last year in late October. Didn't have time to set up bins with all the unpacking before an early winter set in.

We set up our concrete 2 bin system along with our Earth Machine first thing this spring. We even managed to get some compost made. This fall we finally got a small garden area tilled up and ready for planting next spring. We had to wait to build our garden because the place was over run with trees.

At our old place we mulched our flower beds with wood mulch bought at whatever store had them on sale. This worked for us because all our leaves went into either the compost bin or a couple of garbage cans to store until needed in the compost bins.

Now on this new property we made a small flower area just to have something to fiddle with during the summer and did the same thing, added wood mulch after planting. We had to add wood mulch because the rain kept splattering mud on the window well coverings and the house (it looked awful).

Well, this fall has been an eye opener for me as we have never had an over abundance of leaves before. I'm talking about huge amounts (at least to us). I've filled both sides of the bins and 8 garbage cans full of leaves (all shredded). I've put shredded leaves on the garden to sit all winter and I still have PLENTY more. So now I'm thinking about using some as leaf mulch around the flowers and around the little maple tree we planted. I've never used leaf mulch before so I have a few questions.

1. If shredded, does it usually last for a year until next fall or do you usually need to add more in the spring?

2. Will it help with house splatter or do some of you still use wood mulch with the leaf mulch?

I'd like to get away from having to buy wood mulch if the leaf mulch will work but I also don't like the mud splattered all over the window wells and siding. I apologize for the long post, just trying to cover all my bases. Also, I did do a search for leaf mulch but didn't find anything addressing the splatter issue.

Thanks,

Val

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Comments (8)

Kimmsr
17 years ago
How long a shredded leaf mulch will last on any garden depends on how active a Soil Food Web you have. I put down 6 to 8 inches of shredded leaves on the planting beds each fall and by August they are pretty well gone, digested and worked into the soil because of the very active SFW I do have after 35 or so years of adding compost and other organic matter to those beds. Any mulch will help keep your soil from spashing onto the house and shredded leaves is something I have used to prevent that soil from accumulating on the siding.
kqcrna
17 years ago
Leaf mulch should definitely help with the mud splattering. Just one of it's many attributes. Like Kimmsr, I find the mine disappears late the next summer. In spring, after planting, I spread wood mulch over the leaf mulch (because we like the looks of it and I think it's good for the soil). By the time I'm prepping my beds for fall planting there's usually no leaf mulch left from the previous year. I never till anything; I just keep adding layers of stuff (compost, leaves, grass clippings, UCGs, etc) on top.

The biggest trick to success with leaf mulch, I think, is keeping them home. I try to use shredded leaves, tamp down with foot or shovel handle or something, wet, then try to throw a little soil on top and wet again. It doesn't take much soil- just literally a handful here and there helps a lot. Also, leaving a few stems sticking up here and there helps, too.

Karen
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val_s
Original Author
17 years ago
Okay - I'm going to try leaf mulch this year as soon as the rain stops and the leaves dry enough to shred some more. It does bring up another question:

To Karen: I too actually like the looks of the wood mulch. Since wood mulch doesn't deteriorate very quickly, don't you find the layers building up year after year or does the leaf mulch help the wood mulch break down faster? I think I'm reading it right: Fall use leaf mulch then in spring use wood mulch right over leaf mulch then in fall use leaf mulch right over wood mulch? Or do you pull the wood mulch away in fall, spread the leaf mulch then cover with wood mulch. Or do you take the wood mulch off in fall and compost it?

Since the wood mulch takes so long to break down (at least in my experience) I would be thinking the layers could build up pretty fast.

Confused - Val
kqcrna
17 years ago
The length of time it takes wood mulch to disappear depends on a lot of things, I think. The health and activity of the soil would be a big one, but also weather, amount of rain/snow, wind force,size of the mulch come to mind. I don't generally move the wood mulch in fall- I just put leaves on top. By the next spring, my wood mulch has mostly disappeared and needs to be replenished.

The only time it took years to break down was when I let my neighbor talk me into using a very large size bark pieces. They didn't even work well and I never used them again. This year I used pine fines and I like them a lot. Over the past month or so I've been throwing leaf mulch on top of that.

I have told my husband that it's one of those great mysteries in life: where does all that mulch go? After years and years of this, my beds should be elevated about 20 feet, but they're at the same level as the lawn. Go figure.

Karen
Kimmsr
17 years ago
As the soil bacteria digest the mulch and provide the plants growing there some nutrients there is little of that material left, but what is left is what becomes, in your soil, humus, the residual organic matter left after all the rest has been digested. The remainder of that material is converted back to what it was originally, I think, the nutirents and even Carbon Dioxide. This is one of those which was first questions, the chicken or the egg.
val_s
Original Author
17 years ago
Karen - I think I see where my confusion comes from. I didn't know what "pine fines" were so I went searching. From what I see it looks like it's already been somewhat composted, much finer than what I've been using. I'll have to look around for this. It looks like it would be much better than the bags of wood mulch I've been using.

Val
kqcrna
17 years ago
I don't think pine fines are already composted. Rather, it's just pine bark mulch in chipped to very small pieces, about the size of my fingernails. Never used it before this year but I do like it. Before that, we generally used regular old shredded wood mulch. We use what we can get locally, and reasonable cost.

Karen
Frankie_in_zone_7
17 years ago
When I don't have enough shredded leaves, I love the pine bark fines. Around here, W-M sold what seems like that to me, under the name Organic Compost. HD sold it as Landscape Mix. But a lot of the year, no one has it, and none of the workers know what I'm talking about. I learned that when they do have it, I need to buy 20 bags or so at once, 'cause it won't be available year-round. Now, this is if you actually want stuff to break down but also inhibit weeds for awhile--it doesn't serve the same purpose (or look) like bark nuggets, if you like those. But it's very light and porous.