Time To Leaf Your Garden And Go Inside

There is something about falling leaves that makes me a bit melancholy. Drifting lazily through the cold, damp air, they seem to signify the end of the gardening season. As they come to rest like a warm blanket over my sleeping garden, I realize it’s finally time to pack it in and say goodnight for this year.

But before I move indoors, I need a few bushels of those leaves for some projects. I’ll collect what I need from the lawn, only because the lawn doesn’t need the winter mulch as much as my perennials. And raking the large leaves from the grass is a good practice, although not absolutely necessary. It’s not that leaves are toxic to the lawn, they aren’t. It’s that more than an inch or two of leaves can inhibit the lawn’s ability to manufacture food, due to a lack of light. If leaves are left on the lawn over the winter, spring may showcase a brown lawn instead of a lush green lawn. Even if this happens, it would be only a matter of time before the dormant lawn would recover from its thick leafy comforter.

Before we start raking those leaves, keep this in mind: There’s gold in them thar leaves! Leaves can be used as a mulch, they are an important ingredient to the compost pile and they make an excellent soil conditioner.

Mulch: I would find it hard to argue against leaves making a good winter insulator for tender plants. After all, Mother Nature has been using them for eons with great success.

A covering of mulch can do two things. It can keep the soil temperature even, thus helping to prevent the soil from freezing and thawing. This freezing and thawing action can cause heaving, which tears and destroys roots. Mulching can also help prevent the soil from freezing too deeply. When the top few inches thaw over frozen ground, water cannot drain. Plants that cannot tolerate soggy roots may easily be destroyed - roses, chrysanthemums, daphne etc.

When do we begin mulching plants? Follow nature’s lead. Within the next few weeks most of the leaves will have fallen. This should signal a good time to complete the project Mother Nature has started. Waiting until the ground freezes is too impractical.

I also collect trash bags of leaves to use as thermal blankets for plants that I’ll be overwintering in the garage or against the house. The bags of leaves are very pliable and easily worked around plants. They work great for protecting tree roses and container planted shrubs.

Compost ingredient: In order for compost piles to work efficiently, they must have brown and green matter. Brown matter is sometimes difficult to come by in the summer. Here again, simply tuck leaves into trash bags and store them for next year’s use. You can help with the decomposition by adding a quarter bag of peat moss and a cup of 21-0-0 fertilizer to the bag of leaves.

It won’t be compost by spring, but it will be ahead of the rest of the class.

Of course, leaves used as winter mulch should also be collected in the spring and used in the compost.

Soil conditioner: Decomposing leaves create a matter known as leafmold. It’s a blackish-brown, rich, organic material made up of decomposed and some undecomposed leaves, stems and twigs.

It’s humus. And what does humus do? Humus improves the soil’s aeration and drainage, it increases microbiologic activity, it increases the soil’s ability to hold water, and it helps to transform essential nutrients from unavailable to available forms.

If leaves are going to be added to the soil in the fall, they should be ground up into small pieces. Soil must be warm for nitrogen and microorganisms to break down the leaves.

It’s getting a bit late in the season for this activity to take place, but if the leaves are chopped up enough, come spring your soil should be rich in organic matter. If you don’t own a leaf grinder, your rotary lawn mower does a great job.

And finally, as you rake, keep an eye out for those exquisite leaves, especially those with outstanding color and form. Once they’ve been pressed and dried, they can be arranged into spectacular autumn wreaths or used in table settings.

Raking leaves is one of the last chores in the garden. Have fun doing it. Let the child in us kick, romp and dive the leaf piles.

Then say good night to the garden and come inside - to the indoor garden.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review