Natural Mulches: What good are fallen leaves?

Fallen leaves carry 50-80 percent of the nutrients a tree extracts from the soil and air, including carbon, potassium, phosphorus and other elements. These nutrients and elements are essential for plant growth.

What can you do with fallen leaves?

Compost your leaves (see section on composting).

Bag extra dry leaves to save for use in your compost pile during spring and summer.

Put all your leaves on the garden after harvest time, to begin composting during the winter. Turn the leaves into the soil when you roto-til in the spring, adding natural organic material which is like "free" fertilizer.

Use leaves as a mulch around ornamental plants, bushes and trees. Mulch maintains moisture and suppresses weeds.

Let leaves lie where they fall and mow them right onto your lawn. Shredded leaves nourish the soil in the same way that grass clippings left on the lawn provide natural fertilizer.

Composting -- The Natural Fertilizer

Nature recycles its nutrients. Microorganisms break down dead plants into materials that are needed for the growth of new plants. This natural decay process is easily duplicated in backyard compost piles. Composting yard wastes such as leaves, grass clippings, and dead garden plants produces a rich, dark, crumbly product called humus.

When used in the garden or on the lawn, compost builds soil structure, holds moisture, allows drainage, slowly releases nutrients, moderates soil temperature, encourage beneficial earthworms and suppresses soil-borne disease.

Compost piles can be stored in simple bins made out of chicken wire, wood pallets, or a commercial plastic structures can be purchased. A good size for a backyard compost pile is three to four feet high by four feet wide and as long as possible. This size is large enough to hold heat and small enough for good air flow.

Composting Recipe

One part green and two parts brown, Makes the compost turn to ground. Add some water and some soil. Turning is the only toil.

A backyard compost pile is made by mixing grass clippings (green high-nitrogen material) with dry leaves (brown, high-carbon material), soil and water. Mix periodically to add air. This recipe sets up an ideal environment for nature's decomposers to work.

1. Layer one part green materials with two parts brown materials:

Green Materials with high nitrogen content include: grass, weeds and non-woody garden prunings, spent flowers, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable garden scraps.

Brown Materials with high carbon content include: dry leaves, dead brown plants, or potted plants, straw, sawdust, pine needles, finely chopped woody brush and corncobs.

2. Water the layer until moist.

3. Sprinkle 1-2" of soil or mature compost every few layers to provide the microorganisms necessary for the decomposition process.

3. Add water to keep the pile as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

4. Mix or turn periodically with a garden fork. Microorganisms need oxygen and small particle size. The more often you turn the pile, the quicker it breaks down.

Do not add meat, dairy products, diseased plant material, dog or cat wastes to a backyard compost pile. A compost pile made with predominately green materials may become soggy and release unpleasant odors. If this happens, break the heap apart and rebuild it, adding layers of brown materials and turn more often to dry out the pile.

• SOCRRA - Home Composting (PDF)
• SOCRRA - Natural Mulches (PDF)

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The Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project is funded, in part, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Grants #XP995743-01, -02, -03, -04, -05, -06, -08 and C-264000-01.