How to Make Leaf Mold (3 Methods)

i have a trailer loaded with bags of dried leaves to make one of the most amazing soil amendments and it's all free join me as i show you three easy methods for making leaf mold [Music] hi i'm gardener scott and i'm sitting on my compost bin to describe some of the similarities and some of the differences between compost and leaf mold so compost is typically kitchen scraps and yard waste that we throw all together mixing the greens and the browns the nitrogen and the carbon allowing it to decompose over time and then we use it in our garden as a soil amendment or a mulch and especially if we're doing hot composting we can have decomposed organic materials in a few weeks or maybe a few months well leaf mold is very similar it's decomposed organic material but the material is just leaves and so to make leaf mold you just need a few ingredients leaves air water and thyme and that's the big difference we can get compost pretty quickly regardless of how we do it but leaf mold takes a lot of time typically at least six months maybe two years so as long as you've got patience and use one of the methods i'm about to show you you'll be able to create this incredible soil amendment but you have to allow time for it to decompose the first method for making leaf mold is the most natural you just make a big pile of leaves the key difference in the decomposition of the leaves versus a typical compost are the organisms that do the decomposing in compost it's primarily bacteria different types of bacteria will break down the organic material but with the leaves the bacteria take a back seat and it becomes primarily fungi that break down these leaves i like to try to do it near a tree because the type of fungi that are going to be breaking down these leaves are going to be naturally occurring in the soil around trees because they're dropping their leaves and they're dropping their needles and it's that fungi that will also be breaking down decomposing all of the leaves in this pile now you could do it anywhere because these leaves are going to have a lot of the spores that are required for that decomposition but finding an out of the way corner especially underneath trees can quicken the process a bit don't let the name leaf mold confuse you or deter you from making this amazing amendment it has nothing to do with mold you're not going to have a big moldy pile you might see some of the fungal mycelia all the little white threads working through the leaves that's what's decomposing this organic material and then what you're left with after the great amount of time is a deep dark rich material that looks a lot like compost but it's spongy and so when you work it into your soil it acts like millions of little sponges to hold soil moisture it's especially good in sandy soil now i can just leave the pile at this point move to the next step but smaller leaf pieces will decompose faster than whole leaves so i like to take a shovel and start breaking down the pieces and you can also step all over it you don't need to worry about compaction because there's going to be a lot of air space even after we crush these leaves and the volume of this pile is going to decrease by probably at least 75 percent as all this material breaks down so after i crush the leaves after i break them into smaller pieces i'd like the finished pile to be at least one meter square in all directions bigger is better if you have the tools you can use mechanical methods like a leaf blower but instead of blowing the leaves i have it reversed so it sucks up the leaves and as the leaves go through the impeller well they're crushed into much smaller pieces and then collected in this bag a lawn mower is another great tool for chopping up all these leaves and so if you're collecting your own leaves and you can just run a lawn mower over the lawn to collect them do it and then take all those bagged leaves to start your pile i could do it now i could go ahead and spread these leaves out and do my lawnmower over it and it definitely makes the process go faster to get more thorough and quicker decomposition it's best to keep your pile moist at all times for all the months that it's decomposing so as you're building your pile go ahead and wet it get it as wet and moist as possible in the beginning and as you add more leaves wet those layers too while the open pile is the easiest way to make leaf mold one of its biggest drawbacks is that it can blow away in the wind so especially in a very windy region like mine if i have an open pile and i don't keep it moist all the time those dry leaves are going to blow away in the storms we get throughout the year so for me a better solution is to put the leaves in an enclosure this is just welded wire fencing now this is three feet high i buy it in rolls 50 feet long and so i can cut that roll into four lengths of twelve and a half feet each that's about four meters by making this enclosure out of that long a piece now it measures just about four feet from side to side which gives me a really good volume for this leaf mold pile and it's just a simple matter of taking that length wrapping it around a post for extra support and then just securing the ends to hold it into this cylinder shape even using an enclosure like this there's still the risk that some of the leaves will fall out blow away and as the pile decomposes the material can just fall out of the side so i'll take some of this landscape fabric and i'll just unroll it and cover the entire thing and then zip tie the ends together i like to use this landscape fabric not just to hold everything in but also this black material will heat up the pile and that can hasten the decomposition as well while the fungi are the primary organisms doing the decomposition there will be bacteria at work as well and when the bacteria get hot they make more bacteria which help keep the pile hot and that will really help during the cold weather months so this doesn't freeze solid and stop all decomposition and periodically through the year i'll water it just to keep it moist during the summer when it's hot and dry i'll cover it with cardboard or plywood to help hold the moisture in before we move to the third method for making leaf mold let's talk about where you make your leaf mold now with the open pile i mentioned the back corner underneath the tree is a great spot but for an open cylinder like this that's enclosed i like to do it right in the middle of my garden because as this decomposes some of the minerals and nutrients that are in these leaves will gradually leach into the soil so it's going to take about a year maybe more for this to be ready to use as leaf mold in the rest of my beds but long before then the soil underneath will be enriched and i'll be able to plant all the way around it during the growing season the next time i make leaf mold i'll just move this to another area of my garden to enrich the soil underneath that spot with the third method you do have more flexibility you don't have to build a semi-permanent cylinder that's going to be here for a year or a year and a half you don't have to find a secluded corner instead you use the bag that the leaves are in as the container i suggest using the thicker plastic bags so that you can punch it and help break up the leaves inside this is a great task for kids have them throw this around jump on it that'll help break up the leaves and we're going to do all of the decomposition in this plastic bag with the leaves broken into smaller pieces now it's time to wet the leaves and we want a good amount of water initially but we don't want to create a cesspool we don't want all these leaves resting in water during the entire time we want the fungi to be the primary decomposition organism if we just let these leaves sit in water the bacteria are going to take over and it's going to be anaerobic bacteria it's not going to smell good at all so what i'm going to do now that i have a lot of water in is punch holes i'm using a phillips screwdriver to make these holes though this is thick plastic the screwdriver makes a hole that is less likely to tear i don't recommend using a knife because you'll probably get it tearing all around the middle wherever the knife was inserted with the leaves wet and the holes punched now it's time to tie up the bag and these leaves will stay moist much longer than either of the previous two methods the holes do allow air to go in and out and for the water to drain but it will stay wet so periodically i suggest checking on it just to make sure that the underside isn't smelling and getting rotten and the top side isn't too dry and an advantage to this method is that you can move it you can flip it if this spot isn't perfect move it to another spot it will also enrich the soil underneath as the water drains so i'll use bags like this in other areas of the garden before i plant just to help give a little bit of boost to the soil before i harvest all of the leaf mold this method may take 6 to 12 months it tends to be a little bit faster flexible faster easier movable this is a method that a lot of people use leaf mold is relatively unknown to many american gardeners but it's used by gardeners throughout the world especially in areas like the uk and you can see how easy it is to make now i started with a full trailer used about a quarter of the leaves i'll reserve some of these bags to replenish all the piles as they begin to break down i'll also use these leaves as mulch but you can see i have a lot more leaf mold to make and i'll use all three methods throughout my garden you're only limited by the number of leaves you have and i suggest that you check with neighbors and friends and family to get leaves if you don't have enough my neighbor regularly gives me the leaves that he rakes and mows up so not only can i go down and get a load like this but i can get a regular supply on a regular basis just because i've asked my neighbor for his leaves if you haven't subscribed to the garden scott channel now's a good time to do so and make sure you click on the bell so you're notified when new videos come out i'm gardener scott enjoy [Music] gardening you

Channel: Gardener Scott

Views: 198,414

Keywords: gardener scott, gardner scott, leaf mold, leaf mould, leaf mold compost, how to make leaf mold, how to make leaf compost, how to make leaf mould, how to make leaf mold compost, leaf mold vs compost, leaf mold making, leaf mold in plastic bags

Id: KSh4ltwMRJk

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020