Making leaf mould & a recipe for potting compost

Leaf mould is a lovely old fashioned term, and brings to mind old Estate gardens and poorly paid, overworked garden boys.  It often appeared as a magic ingredient alongside weathered soot and wood ash and ground up toe nails!

But for us it is a natural plentiful resource and a vital ingredient in our potting composts. Over the years we have steadily reduced the amount of peat in our mixes and leaf mould is really useful.

The native trees that shed their leaves for us are Hazel, Birch and Oak, and of course we are a garden and we also have lots of Maples, Cercidiphyllum , Chestnut and Larch.

The leaves fall onto beds and along the paths.
This make for easy pickings and any dry day from late October onwards, there is often someone out there, with a bucket, a rake and a collection old compost bags.

Rebecca hard at work with the rake

The leaves are poured out into compost bins constructed from wooden pallets and when we have a bumper year, we make wire netting cages to take them all.  

There they sit for 2 years, slowly mouldering.
Each leaf has its own characteristics.
Oak is tough and takes 2 years to rot down.
Hazel is much softer and takes a year to 18 months.

Inevitably there is the odd holly leaf in the mould. They are a pain, literally.  They are always a surprise, and take forever to rot so they retain all of their prickles. Again natures wee joke.

Leaf mould is also a great mulch, in fact it is nature’s mulch in our woodlands
We like to return some to the beds every year.

Here’s our recipe for general purpose potting compost

Sieved Leaf Mould 1/3^rd
John Innes No3 1/3^rd
Grit/Gravel 1/6^th depending on the plants to use it
Fibrous Compost 1/6^th to 1/3^rd (You could use peat, but there are now many more sustainable alternatives available)

^{Happy gathering,  M}

^{For more advice about the benefits of leaves read Donald's Autumn Blog from 2009}

^{Love Your Leaves}

Walking in a Woodland Wonderland

Walk along the tempting pathways. Dappled sunlight and bright foliage are everywhere. Just now the bluebells are out, they are fewer this year. Last year that the very air above them shimmered and they dissolved the daylight into a blue haze.

Instead of the blue we have a green lightness through the woods. The leaves of the rowans and birch are still fresh and salad green; the crosiers of the emerging ferns are elegant and beautiful. The oaks are a glistening bronzed green and out before the ash

Oak before Ash we are in for a splash
Ash before Oak we are in for a soak.

Good it is splash this year. , the ash are scarcely moving, even now in late May.
Throughout our woodland garden we have kept many native plants, but everywhere there are highlights and delights.

The subtle beauty of Solomon’s seal, tellima and the lovely sculptured form of emerging hostas. Hardy geraniums everywhere, but I particularly like the Irish Blue and Kashmir White at this time. Time for the pinks and magentas later.

Then there are bright islands of colour in the lighter glades. The Rhododendrons are magnificent these year and some of the large leaved forms that we have planted have done really well and are beginning to become a wonderful feature. And soon my favourites the deciduous azaleas will bloom…….. Golden Eagle, Fireball, Irene Koster and for the best scent of all, I am planting lots of Azalea luteum, the old fashioned yellow azalea found on many old estates.

Evergreens, that were very frightened by the winter are starting to shake off the brown disconsolate look; pieris has been wonderful, but osmanthus, eucryphia and even some Ilex have been very unhappy, they are much better now. It is a relief to see their new glossy leaves.