Betty,
Sounds bustling around you! Im wondering, do you ever find strange things in those bags of leaves?

You can tell which ones were per ground up by the weight that equates to volume, more the better. If you have hosta that have developed fairy rings consider this.

Search google "fairy ring mulch volcano"

Upnort,

What's in the bags.

The usual, leaves, sticks, grass clippings, great when I get a few bags of pine needles. May be the occasional Tim Horton's coffee cup, or the odd piece of garbage, but not very often.

What gets me is what can be in the bags, after they have been in my yard, the next spring when I go to use them.
The snakes are the worst for me. Last year (2007) I reached for a bag, that was well composted, and there was a hornet's nest, just stayed away from that area for a bit. Early the next spring (March) I covered the area with newspapers and leaves and haven't seen anything in the area since.

Betty

yep, snakes. Thats what I was wondering. Happened to me too. I dumped the bag out and it crawled away! Scared the beegeezus outta me!

Are you collecting leaves in the brown paper bags? Don't the bags rot out by spring? I've thought about trying to shred some leaves (I have oak, which decompose awfully slowly) and store them in Rubbermaid barrels for a year or so to turn to leaf mold. It would be great if I could keep them in the paper bags, but I don't think they'd hold up.

We store leaves to use in the spring from our yard (maple and pine needles and from the neighbors oak). We use larger black plastic bags that I get a box of from our local Farm and Fleet store. There are about 25 in each box and we have used them again and again until their get holes. I got 2 boxes and will need to get more this year. We pick up the leaves, shred them, then put them in the bags. By the time we stop collecting we have as many as 25 to 30 bags to use and share with family.

I've even gotten one of my brothers who has tons of leaves he used to burn to use them this way and he has noticed an improvement in the many flower beds they have.

The only problem is where to store so many bags! We put them under our pines now as we used to leave them sit on the vegetable garden and it wouldn't dry out as fast in the spring with them being on top of the earth. Live and learn! What a savings for us as we don't have to buy nearly as much wood mulch as we used to.

It is intence work but worth it I think.

Connie

"I've thought about trying to shred some leaves (I have oak, which decompose awfully slowly) and store them in Rubbermaid barrels for a year or so to turn to leaf mold."
lovesummer

They will become leaf mold if you just put them on the soil, or run the mower and they will decompose a bit quicker or pile them up or any way one wants to handle them BIG BUTT it really isn't necessary to spend a lot of time or money to get leafmold.

Leafmold had a value back when potting media's were not so available for containers and we needed to construct our own potting media. Leaves were composted then sifted for size, not large or small for indoor plants. The leaves needed to be somewhat composted before we used them in pots.

Lovesummer,
The leaves I am collecting are in clear or orange plastic garbage bags. The Town used to have a large vacuum on the back of a truck that they would go from house to house and collect them, now they have to put them in bags and they take them if someone(like me)doesn't get them first. If I lived in Town they would deliver a truck full, but... I am outside of Town.

Connie
I just store them in the yard and yes the plastic does break down. The best place to store them is if you want to start a new bed in your yard, place the bags where you want the new bed to be, on the grass,or whatever. By the next spring the ground under them will be bare and you can take off the plastic and turn the composted leaves in, or use more leaves to build up the area and add soil, compost if needed and happy planting. Can usually pick up most with the plastic or a garden fork if not fully composted.
Told you before that I was a lazy gardener.

I have some new areas of bare ground from all the excavating in my yard, filled in the hole from the pool and another raised area where we put the soil from the trench we had to make for the run-off. I will place bags of leaves on the bare ground in these areas to help stop the weeds from taking over before I get a chance to do something there (start planting)in the spring. The only reason I leave them in the bags is that it makes it easier to move them where I want them. You could just put the leaves on the ground, but I think the bagged ones kill whatever is underneath better.

I have approx 70 bags already and I saw more in Town earlier today. Have some that I did not use this year so they will be well composted (beautiful stuff). There is a landscape guy who also brings me some by the truckload.

Recycle is the word these days and that is just what we are doing when we use the leaves, like Esther Opal says "putting back in the earth what came from it".

It hurts to see all the leaves trucked away when someone could use them. But we live in a throw away society. We have to educate the younger ones now....

Betty

It hurts to see all the leaves trucked away when someone could use them. But we live in a throw away society. We have to educate the younger ones now....
Betty

Actually it is far better than it used to be, there are laws about recycling that has led to many municipal yardwaste facilities across the country. Far, FAR more is recycled but there is a big inefficiency in transporting yardwaste to and from the facility. The big advantage is that it is no longer placed in a hole where it may stay for a 100 years before it compost requiring that the hole is maintained increasing the expense.

The best place is use it where or near where it falls.

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaves and grass as God might look at them

Our town vacuums the leaves into a big truck and hauls them to the landfill. They pile them up and give the leaf mulch away for free the following year. This past summer, I got 8 Ford Ranger bed fulls for my new garden area. I did the lasagna method. Didn't bother killing the grass either. Just let it die under the cardboard and news paper. They also have shredded limbs that I used for mulch. Took 4 loads of that just to cover the area that's brown in the photo. This entire area was oak seedlings and weeds until 3 months ago. I can't wait for spring.

{{gwi:1102096}}

"This entire area was oak seedlings and weeds until 3 months ago. I can't wait for spring."
token

Often with lasagna methods the weeds are taken care of, BIG BUTT not always. You might consider surflan or preen this 1st year. Surflan is liquid and can be mixed with roundup or other herbicides to kill and hold down germination with one spraying, surflan is the active ingredient in preen but usually more expensive because one must purchase a larger volume.

I picked up leaves after church today, coffee grounds from coffee shops are also a good resource.