This is also known as sheet composting, so it's not totally unknown, although most people do add a few more things as they go along, maybe not all at once. But, the joy of doing it is that you can do it any way you want. You can add any veggie stuff you want - coffee grounds, grass clippings, etc., and throw in any "brown" stuff you have as well as the leaves. If you have access to shredded paper, or to wood shavings/horse bedding/pet bedding (NOT cat or dog bedding, because of parasite/disease risk), you can add them as well. It may be slower to break down than a "hot" compost pile would be, since you don't turn it, but the best thing about compost is that it happens, whatever you do, given enough time.

Been there done that. It will break down over time and add good stuff to your soil. I don't fret too much about composting just add whatever organics I have in large, huge, enormous quantities. I garden in sand and it eats up the organics at an alarming rate. The more you add the better the soil. Shredded leaves are fabulous. Whole ones can create a probem by matting down and preventing moisture getting through. Mulch is a good thing too. Theresa.

Limhyl, you are sure right about the sand eating up the organics! Here's another "stupid" question...what's the best way to shred leaves? We have run them over with our lawn mower before but is there a better way? Oh, and that old wives' tale about oak leaves not being good to use is just a myth, right?

Lindskimy
I saw a guy on TV put leaves in a large garbage can, insert a weedeater and shred the leaves that way. Don't know how well it works though.

Oak leaves, in fact, are supposed to be less likely to mat down, if you don't shred them, which is a good thing.

As far as shredding leaves, if you have a lawn mower with a bag, running over them, either just as they lay or raked into windrows, works, and you can then pour them out where you want them. You can also just run over them and leave them lay; they won't kill off any grass if they are shredded. You can also - USING EAR PROTECTION - put the leaves into a metal garbage can, and run a weed whacker in the can to shred them. Or, which I would love to do but haven't yet decided to spend the money to buy the shredder/chipper, buy a shredder/chipper and shred them that way. The benefit of that is, while you do need to rake them up for most of them, you can move the machinery to the piles and not vice versa. Some machines have a vacuum hose attachment, and you can use it to collect and shred the leaves. Having borrowed a friend's last fall, I would advise getting one with as big a bag as possible!

I bought one of those vacuum/shredding/blowers for leaves and I noticed that the blades were getting ruined because along with the leaves, I was also vacuuming up pine cones and small rocks - which were damaging to the mechanism. My husband blows all the leaves into the woods, and the only way I can get shredded leaves is if I shred them by hand - I love when the leaves are dry, they just crumble and there's no problem - but after it rains, I can't crumble.
If someone has a better idea on how to shred leaves, I would love the advice. Personally, we tried the garbage can/weed whacker and it didn't work for us (unless we just didn't whack it enough).

Carrie

I THINK that the vacuum/shredders with the strings or flailswork better than the ones with blades, since the hard stuff gets by them. If you want a chipper/shredder, then you NEED the blades to get the branches -unless it, as the better ones do, uses flails - jointed sections of metal that spin and chop everything in their way - and anything too hard just spins around for a while and either falls out or sits on the screening, so you can remove it once you stop everything.

Again, I THINK, as I've not done it, garbage cans and weed whackers do work, but the can should be pretty full and the weedwhacker moved up and down through the leaves for best results.

My leaf blower is supposed to suck them up and shred too as an option but it is very slow and pinecones don't go through well. I actually think that the mower works best unless you want to invest in a shredder, and that can be expensive. I've never tried the weed whacker in the barrel, but I can't believe it's easier than just mowing unles you have nowhere flat to mow stuff. Weed whackers just have such small wires or blades. Then again, I really send my husband out to do that kind of job so I am only talking about how hard it LOOKS =) -Ais.

we got one of those electric leaf shredders from a yard sale one time (sears- the kind that sits on top of a garbage can). it was essentially a big funnel with a weedwhacker inside. we used it lightly for a few yrs, then used it a lot last yr and blew the motor. it worked well til it pooped out- the leaves were nicely shredded, but it was a very dusty affair. we also had a leaf vac/blower, and after we blew the shredder, we blew the vac doing the same thing just a day or 2 later. we'd found it was easier to blow/rake stuff into a big pile & then run it through the shredder or suck it up, and i think we were trying to put too much through at once and/or running them for too long. i don't think either is made for heavy work, or a lot of it. the bag would get so heavy on the vac that it was hard for me to navigate. and it wasn't even that big & filled fast, so it was a pain, literally. i got that i'd take the bag off and just let the shreds shoot out the backside, especially in the woods. gravel and rocks are really hard on the mechanisms, though, and since i have paths with gravel, it's hard to avoid. they only suck well if the leaves are fairly dry. i would think the weedwhacker in the can would work but would make such a racket the police would show up. i think you'd blow the weedwhacker if you were trying to do too much to quickly, like we did. plus those vibrations are killer!

so, basically, i think we're coming to the conclusion that ais has- that either you buy a big time chipper shredder or you mow over the leaves. which can be rough on the mower if there's gumballs, cones, sticks & rocks (from the driveway). maybe someday we'll do the chipper shredder thang. pete suggested i put it on my christmas list- stinker! tam

... or use the old fashioned method by rubbing dry leaves together with your gloved hands!

I know, it takes forever, but I just love hearing those crispy leaves crumble... (that's nutty, right?) LOL

Carrie

My best additive to the junk the builder used for flower bed soil is PEANUT SHELLS.
I've used them in years past for a raised bed that then produced spinach. No lie..some of the leaves were as big as dinner plates.

It's pretty uncommon now, since peanut allergy is more known, but some restaurants(primarily steak houses) serve peanuts in the shell. Patrons throw the shells on the floor.
I got a couple garbage bags full of sweepings for my veggie garden.
They do need replenishing yearly but in this household of peanut lovers that's not a problem.

Carrie- I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has done that:) I probably spent a couple of hours doing that just a couple of weekends ago. I let the breeze blow them over the new beds. I didn't get dense coverage but felt like I was at least feeding the worms something. I had already spread out coffee grounds. These were oak leaves that I raked and bagged 2 years ago- I don't they'll ever break down LOL.

I'm starting up all new beds cuz I just moved here. So I started with a layer of newspaper or cardboard and then raked up leaves and added some hay. Now I've been running outside in my nightie most mornings to add some veggie scraps and coffe grounds. I just push over a little of the leavey/mulch and dump my scraps and then cover it back up with leaves and run into the house. :)
I've been putting in eggshells, coffe grounds, pasta, rice, veggies that are left over.

In my old house I used to put some of those things in my vitamix blender along with a little bit of household amonia and make it a puree and then I would dig a little hole and toss it under my shrubs. When I moved into that house the shrubs were leggy and bare and when we moved out they were healthy as could be,so I think it must have helped. Mulch is my #1 favorite garden thing--and I don't think I'll ever have a real compost pile again cuz I can just mulch over scraps and let the worms do that. And yes --they do like that stuff. Mary

I am sort of in love with my neighbor because he mows and shreds the back part of our shared yards, and made me a beautiful pile of shredded leaves to use at my discretion. Oh,the joy! Ok, it's just a crush.