Very soon, many of the leaves on the deciduous trees in the garden and park will start to change colour and fall to the ground. It’s a sure sign that fall is in the air. Here are a four ways you can use fallen leaves in your garden
1. Mulch Your Garden Beds
Leaves are high in carbon and have lots of organic matter that you can use as a fall mulch. If you didn’t have time or don’t want to plant a cover crop in your garden, leaves can fill in as a substitute in helping to condition the soil.
Run your lawn mower over your pile of leaves several times until you have a nice pile of shredded leaves. Place a layer of leaves 2-3 inches thick over your garden bed. They’ll help insulate the soil over the winter, provide some food for the worms and microorganisms as they start to break down, suppress weed seeds from germinating and provide a nice base for you to start growing in again come the spring time.
2. Use Leaves In Garden Art Projects
Leaves come in a variety of shapes, colours, and sizes. From your leaves, you can paint them, make rubbings with them, cutout shapes/letters in them, and sew them together and hang them from your ceilings. These are just a few ideas – the sky is the limit when it comes to your creativity and imagination with what other ways you can use them.
3. Save Them for Other Times of the Year
If you happen to have lots of leaves and space to store them, you can hang onto the leaves until you need them. They make for an excellent addition to the compost pile, especially in balancing out excess greens from weeds/vegetation from the garden. You can also use them as mulch as described earlier on. Leaves can also make for good bedding material for your worm composting bin and to balance out the volume of food scraps you feed the worms too.
4. Compost Them
Leaves are high in carbon and a good source of the “brown” material needed for all bins. If you make a compost pile using just leaves, you’ll end up with leaf mold, or leaf compost. Add this to your garden and your plants will thank you with better soil texture and healthier plants.
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