I use a piece of plywood .

When I lived in the Mid-Atlantic (and always had TONS of leaves to take care of) I made leaf mold by stuffing them in large plastic contractor bags, making a few holes in the bags, piling them behind the shed, and forgetting about the whole thing for about a year and a half. This is a good way to protect the leaves from the wind, critters, or becoming too wet and slimy in an exposed pile.

If you plan to use the leaf mold in a years time the only roots you will get are going to be fibrous (from my experience with my leaf bin and separate compost bin and that’s with a wisteria 3 feet away and a maple 10. ) The roots break off fairly easily for me when I’m scooping out the leaf mold or compost and I just apply them with the media. if you are going to go longer then a season... I would think the plywood idea above would be easier. The idea of having to work with landscape fabric at the bottom when removing the mold just seems hellish

Thanks, Nevermore. Just to make sure I understand, you’re saying it would be hellish because the leaf mold would cling to the landscape fabric and be hard to separate from it?

Just saying that using a pitch fork or

shovel to remove the media will ultimately lead to you damaging the fabric at some point. What type of bun did you make? And are you going to let the leaves break completely down to mold or are you going to use the leaves soon then that as a mulch?

Ok, right. Though I wonder if using a pitchfork on plywood might also be hard. Maybe gently using just a shovel for the bottom layer might work for either material.

I made the bin out of just some metal fencing I had lying around. I do want to let the leaves break down which I understand usually takes about a year, though I've shredded them so it'll probably be quicker than that. The bin is 4' wide and 6' long but only 2 1/2' tall and I've read that you really want at least 3' in all directions for maximum decomposition. So they may end up breaking down more slowly than they would with a larger volume. Well, who knows what will happen? - it's going to be a good experiment.

I'd also suggest plywood or something like that. Agree you'd damage landscape fabric - I'm also not sure that landscape fabric would do a very good job at keeping maple shoots out. I have had this happen and maples are VERY aggressive; it was a lot of work cutting out the lumps of degraded leaves from the maple shoots, and some came out as lumps that felt about 60% maple shoots/roots, almost solid (or I'd have to shake the 'dirt' out). I'm avoiding that spot mostly for my piles for this very reason. It wasn't the end of the world but not fun.

You all have convinced me. Plywood it is. Being an inveterate anglophile, I tend to take everything BBC Gardeners' World and Monty Don say as gospel. If their web page has an article about making "leaf mould" that says to use "weed-smothering membrane", then come hell or high water I'm going to madly search around for the American equivalent of that, which I figured would be a thick landscape fabric.

I hope Monty Don doesn't fly across the pond and come over to my house with one of his beautiful golden retrievers and criticize me for using plywood rather than his "weed-smothering membrane." If so, I think I'd be able to convince him it was the right decision. Maybe our maple trees have more aggressive roots than theirs.

Yeah I don't know what weed smothering membrane means in this context either. Plastic sheets? An old tarp? Old carpet might work too. The only sense of membrane that's meaningful is a material that lets some things through and not others. I guess here so water drains through. Problem is those pesky maple roots will get into just about anything. If your pile is under a tree I wouldn't worry about water too much. It's better in general if the leaf pile is in contact with the ground - worms - but the hassle of maple roots is such that better to forego the direct contact if those are the options.

It's interesting that very few of the articles I've read about creating a leaf mold pile with a bin or cage say anything about this issue of roots penetrating up into it. I hadn't even thought of it until I saw it mentioned on that BBC Gardeners' World article.

And I would imagine you have the same potential problem when you make a compost pile directly on the ground as well?

Good question. I don't know. I moved my leaf pile a half dozen metres over under a fir and no problem. Compost pile that's closer doesn't have the same problem. So I think it just depends on the yard and specific spots. You could always just risk it and see - it's not the end of the world if it happens.

So maybe maple roots are more vigorous than fir? And maybe trees find leaves more delicious than compost? Who knows.

I'd be curious to know more about your leaf pile. How big is it? How long do you let the leaves ferment? How has it been working out? It's my first year to even pay the idea any attention and it's kind of opened up a new world to me.

I had several different size ( up to 20' in diameter 3' high) piles of leaves in different distance from different trees in the past. Fibrous roots came to every pile up to 1 foot high.

Another problem was the piles didn't get wet even under heavy rain. I had to water them with soapy water (gray water after bath).

I can't speak for others, in my yard, the maples are an aggressive weed and their roots very vigorous. I don't notice from other trees anywhere near as much. Notably these maples can grow new trees by sending out shoots, so I have to actively keep pulling the new ones out. (Tough little ones, too) Not surprising to me that a lot of trees want their roots in the leaf pile, they think it's the forest floor.

I can't say my leaf approach is special: I try to shred leaves especially maple as they mat and break down slowly otherwise (but if the leaves are too wet I don't shred). I vary my approach a bit from time to time but mostly it's pile them up and forget about it. I get piles of maybe two cubic yards - but classic pile without a bin so wider at top, thinner at bottom. Sometimes I turn them actively (but not often), sometimes just leave them alone. Sometimes less of a tall pile and just hedge-like near a fence or wherever there's some room. (Perhaps worth noting I leave some loose leaves on lawn or elsewhere, I'm not looking for a golf course lawn, those break down in place)

The piles are usually almost completely broken down by the next fall or the following spring; probably would be more perfect the fall after (i.e. two years after piling up). If I want to use them before that and want it more fine, I run over them with a lawnmower. I don't mean any of this as "how you should do it", just works for me, particularly from the not work too hard at this angle.

Good to read this, armoured. Thank you.

Thanks Rick. Would have made more sense if I'd not said the pile was wider at the top than at the bottom, but you probably figured that out )

My neighbor had several maple trees and it only took me a few years before training her to give me her bagged leaves.... she’d rake them into piles and I’d bring my mulcher over and shred and bag them for me. Eventually, if I wasn’t around, she’d just bag them whole and bring the bags to my side yard. :) Sadly, she had nearly all of her trees removed last year and sold her house just this month.... so no more extra bags of leaves for me. :(

fwiw, I’m in NY and found that they’d break down much quicker if I watered them with diluted urine.