I just cover my beds in leaves. My family and I are the only ones who see my flower beds. I live out in the country.

Agree w/Sheila 100%. IF you need more convincing, go to Soil/Mulch/Compost forum and peruse.

Also: stand-alone leaves in the beds will not "look rubbishy" if first passed over with a lawn mower

Thus: no need to "cover them up w/mulch" - they ARE mulch. Note: they will decompose faster, chopped, than w/o chopping.

No - I do not have a sleep disorder.

If you shred or mow them first and then add them to your beds, they'll be turned into earthworm castings or compost by the end of the season. If you put them down whole and cover with mulch, they can form a sheet through which herbaceous plants may have trouble penetrating. If you just leave them in their plastic bags, tucked into some out-of-the-way part of the yard, they'll become leaf mold in a year or two -- a valuable addition to making your own potting soil, or for adding to the garden beds. This is different from leaf compost in that the leaf mold results from mostly (or completely) fungal breakdown of the leaves, rather than the mix of all sorts of organisms feeding upon them in a compost pile. The results are different -- leaf mold is like fluffy dark peat moss.

:-)

~Christopher

Sheila- to be fully honest, I did not include the part that I did not rake and bag any of those leaves, merely went raiding the curbs of neighbors on trash night :) I don't tend to rake my yard, I'd rather save my efforts for the garden

rifis- I'm impressed you don't have a sleep disorder but I might :)

Christopher- so I'm hearing from you that all options are good except getting rid of the leaves. Also, didn't know that about leaf mold, new info is always good

Thanks so much all!

I don't recommend putting them down whole and covering with mulch unless you have a bed with just roses or other shrubs. Anything you planted which dies back to the ground in Winter would have to penetrate the layer of whole leaves, which may not be possible. In a mixed bed, shred them first. Or add them whole to the compost pile. Or leave them bagged and tucked away for a year or two to become leaf mold.

:-)

~Christopher

ljsemar, I know exactly how you feel about the look of leaves on the beds. I felt the same way before I started using wood chip mulch from some trees we had felled. I LIKED the appearance of dark soil around my plants and thought any kind of mulch looked messy. That was until I saw first hand what a difference the mulch made. Now I think it's beautiful, and I bet by the end of the season, you will too. At the very least, you will love what it does for your soil, and in turn, your roses.

Can leaf mold also be used as mulch? At what stage of decomposition do shredded leaves become the ideal mulch in terms of nutritional value added to the soil and appearance? I love the look of damp, dark mulch..

I find that whole leaves all my themselves work fine in my yard and I agree that I've come to find the look attractive (not to mention saving me $100s of dollars in mulch and other unnecessary amendments). I just dump the filled leaf bags that I scavenge from the neighborhood around the stumps of pruned cane in the springtime (after finishing their duty as winter protection), putting down some fertilizer and alfalfa first. As Christopher says, if you weigh the whole thing down too much with hardwood mulch on top the other perennials nearby may have trouble coming back (or in my case, the rose sprouts coming back from being pruned to the ground), but I've found the whole leaves in the bed allow enough air space for the perennials to work around just fine if they don't have too much on top of the leaves. The only reason I need anything on top of the whole leaves is to keep them from blowing away in the spring. Usually I'll save back some of the bags of neighbors who so thoughtfully shred their leaves "for me" and layer those on top of the whole leaves.

All of this counts for me as a "lazy way" to improve my soil, fertilize, and mulch at the same time.
Cynthia

I pile whole leaves on the vegetable beds, which I double dug last year--I am getting tooo old for this--and will pile compost on top of them. I mostly start vegetable plants by winter sowing, I just finished up the cold hardy batch and will start the maters, peppers, etc. after March 21. Sort of lasagna beds without all the off site inputs.

My husband was dying to use his new shredder. So he shredded up the leaves. I was surprised how much smaller the leaf pile was after being shredded as opposed to being left whole. Not only were they great Winter protection but They make lovely mulch.