why do you care about the leaves breaking down? If the seedlings are tall enough they will not be covered when the wind blows.

I use BSF maggots. I mix leaves & yard waste with kitchen scraps, so even though the leaves aren't eaten by the maggots, they create conditions where the leaves & Palm fronds & twigs I throw in are quickly broken down. Leaves are usually totally decayed in 4 weeks in my compost bin (I use a rat-proof vented barrel). Works great! Might be worth experimenting with for your stuff.

Thanks. As to row planting, the issue isn't uncomposted mulch covering the seedlings, but when it is dug in, it doesn't finish breaking down by the time the plants go in. I dig a hole for a transplant, and find pieces of leaves. To be sure, when the shredded leaves are dug in, they're not going to cover any seedlings! Of course, the thick leaf mulch that I layer on top of the beds during the fierce summer just gets dug into the soil at the end of the season (Oct/Nov), and contributes to soil quality for next year. But I would rather have it contribute to the soil quality for this year.

Urine is an interesting idea, as it is thoroughly degraded (and whatever salts are washed out) after a month or two. But I probably don't make enough!

Yeah, add in some nitrogen to bring your C:N ratio down. Besides limiting nutrients, the other factors that control decomposition rates are temperature, oxygen, and water.

Can you increase the temps? I ask because I have kind of the same situation here in that nothing composts fast in the winter. My solution is to keep the leaves in black garbage bags in a sunny place from late fall to early spring and then to turn them in or use them as mulch when I go to plant out. I usually add a handful of lawn fertilizer and a couple of scoops of compost to each bag, and a couple of times a month I'll roll the bags back and forth and check them to see if they get too dry. Seems to break the leaves down much faster than raking them in a pile or turning them in in late fall.

I have the space and can collect more bags than I need for the following year. Similar to aniajs, I keep the leaves bagged and piled ...but I don't add anything to speed up the decay. It takes a year for leaves at the bottom of the pile to decay. Fresh leaves (on top and a few months old) make great mulch; decayed leaves (on the bottom of the pile) work great for tilling in as a soil ammendment.

+2. Like the previous two posters, I keep the leaves in paper bags in a shady spot. The bottom of the bag rots and disappears over the winter, but the paper can go under the leaves to make the mulch even better when applied in spring. Dry leaves are cheap and effective. The only real con is that sometimes they blow in the wind and cover small seedlings.

I garden in raised beds, with areas I don't walk on. I mulch everything with ground up leaves, fairly thick, as I grind them up in the fall and winter. In spring, when it is time to plant, I don't stir those into the soil, I just push aside the mulch enough to plant, even into the walkways if necessary, and let things go. As things get growing well, and temps begin to rise, I can push some of that mulch back in place. When crops are finished, I then stir in compost and the previous year's mulch, because when I get lots of leaves later I'll start the process again.

If you just bag whole leaves, I don't think they'll decay that fast at all. As I say, I make sure mine are well ground up before they fill the garbage cans. If they're wet, they'll turn into nice leaf mold in three or four months. But I just don't have three or four months to be able to use them in the soil at the beginning of the season, which is about two months after they fall. Sure, if you just use them as surface mulch, it's fine, but I'd like to be able to dig it in pretty promptly.

I gather you don't have a compost pile. Just leaves by themselves will not break down very quickly, so you'll need to add something green to start the process going. Do you have any lawn clippings or vegetable peelings? They work quite well. Keep it all moist too. I use a method called lasagna gardening where I layer leaves, grass clippings and other green stuff, and regular garden dirt. I do this in my raised beds every fall. By the spring, much of it has composted, not all, and without tilling, I just plug in my seedlings. The composting process keeps the soil warm and good for the seedlings. Just a plain weeder works well for making holes to plug in seedlings. My regular compost pile is steaming away right now. My neighbor tossed in all his lawn clippings on top of a bunch of leaves, then I covered those with more leaves.

Well, yes, I have a compost pile, but it's a small one, and as such, doesn't get steaming hot. Besides, in December, who has a lot of green stuff to throw in it? My grass isn't actively growing, and at least deciduous leaves are all brown. We're talking about fully breaking down shredded leaves in two months. I think the only answer is application of some ammonium-based fertilizer. That's not too pricey, and I have no compunctions about throwing "chemicals" on my pile.

Dan, I use Urea (46-0-0) for added nitrogen on my piles. It works well and is also pretty cheap at about $22 for a 50 lb. bag around here. Most farm supply stores should carry it.

That's a great idea. Thanks very much. I've never seen urea in bulk, but a farm supply store is probably the right place to look for it. Cheap nitrogen! What a blessing.