The Secret to Amazing Garden Soil

They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but fallen leaves can be turned into a superb soil improver that will help you grow bigger, better vegetables for free. Pure gardener’s gold!

Autumn’s a time of huge excitement for me because I know there are piles of leaves waiting for me to hunt down, rake up and selfishly hoard to use in my garden. These beauties save me lots of money buying in pricey soil amendments. I can hardly believe that this abundant goodness is available for the taking every autumn – and all I have to do is pick them up!

The Best Ways to Collect Leaves

Nature builds soil with leaves in any woodland. Take a closer look at the top layers of the soil, and you’ll see just how beautifully crumbly and rich it is. The soil is enriched each year as the trees above kiss the ground with their blanket of goodness. These leaves are broken down by the life in the soil, creating a marvelous soft, rich soil texture. Why wouldn’t we want this in our gardens too?

I like to gather leaves from wherever I can: paths and hard surfaces in my own garden; from neighbors only too happy to give them away (even better if they’re already swept them up!); or anywhere I know they’ll be free of exhaust fumes, dog deposits and other impurities.

Just don’t be too thorough when collecting up your leaves – allow plenty of leaf piles to remain undisturbed in beds, borders and out-of-the-way corners as homes for insects and other wildlife. Many critters – large and small – rely on these leaves to sit out the chill of winter, so spare them a thought too.

Feed Soil with Leaves

The simplest way to process your collection leaves is to simply pile them onto beds to rot down and get taken into the soil over the quieter months.

This leafy layer will help to keep the soil snug and all those worms and other soil organisms somewhat protected from harsh or very wet weather. It’s how nature looks after itself, after all! I like to pile up leaves around my fruit trees and bushes, and by spring many of the leaves will have already disappeared into the soil, naturally nourishing it in the process.

This concentrates the benefits of leaves into one area, which in theory makes up for some of the nutrients lost through removing plant material, for example when harvesting or pruning.

How Make a Leaf Mold Cage

Then there’s the option of making a leaf pile to turn leaves into leaf mold. Mold?? It doesn’t conjure up the nicest image does it! But leaf mold is the same stuff you get on the woodland floor: decomposed leaves with an irresistibly earthy smell. Absolutely beautiful stuff!

To keep all those leaves in one spot and prevent them from just blowing away, you can make a simple leaf mold cage. While the leaves are slowly breaking down, they’ll still offer a home for wildlife in this way.

Drive in four posts about 3ft (1 m) apart to serve as the corners of your cage, then fix chicken wire to the corner posts with staples or U-shaped nails, leaving a 6in (15cm) gap at the bottom. This will ensure that animals looking for somewhere cozy to hibernate can easily walk into the leaf pile at ground level, and walk out again come spring. If the wire is jagged at the base, fold it up so nothing gets caught on any sharp bits. Nature and gardener friendly – you’ve got to love it!

If you find your leaves take ages to break down, check how moist the pile is and water it if it’s dry. That will encourage into action all the fungi that are essential to this alchemy of turning leaves into leaf mold. You could also try digging everything out then refilling to introduce lots of lovely fresh air to jump start things. Between you and me, I also like to occasionally wee on both my compost heaps and my leaf mold cages – animals wee in the woods, so why shouldn’t I? And that nitrogen-rich goodness will act as an accelerator – it’s rocket fuel to the whole process!

Another way to speed things up is to add in some fresher, green material like grass clippings. However, do bear in mind that this will create an end product that is slightly richer in nutrients which may not be suitable for all uses, for example making seed-starting mixes.

(If you’re using our Garden Planner, by the way, did you know that there’s a handy Leaf Mold Bin option that you can add to your plan, and it’s scalable to match the real-world size of your pile? Nice!)

How to Make Leaf Mold in Bags

If you don’t have space for a leaf mold cage, bag up your leaves instead. You could stuff your leaves into a trash bag, tie it off at the top, then puncture some holes into the bag to let some air in. I’ve made some great leaf mold this way, but there’s just one problem – more plastic in the garden, which we’re all trying to move away from.

So, a more ecologically sound alternative is to use something like biodegradable gardening sacks, which also happen to be perfectly breathable. Fill them with your leaves, pull the drawstrings closed, then pop them into an out-of-the-way corner for a year or two. Easy!

How to Use Leaf Mold

Leaf mold will help you create the best soil – soil like a life-filled forest floor! After one year you’ll have a usable product – a little bit lumpy still, but just the ticket for adding to beds as a free and beautiful soil conditioner. Add it as a mulch around established plants or to cover bare soil for winter.

Or leave it for another year, because after two years your leaf mold should be wonderfully crumbly. This stuff is perfect for including in your own potting mixes or even, because it’s relatively low in nutrients, to make your own seed-starting mix.

Rakes vs Leaf Blowers

So what should you use to gather up those leaves – a rake, or a leaf blower? I studied horticulture at university, and I remember a practical session when we pitted leaf blowers against rakes. Rakes were almost as fast as the leaf blowers and, of course, you get a free workout in the process! Rakes are quiet, don’t pollute, and will get into all those nooks and crannies. Crucially, they’re a lot less disruptive to wildlife too.