5 BEST PRACTICES FOR USING LEAVES IN YOUR GARDEN

Fall is here and so are the leaves. A nuisance to some-having to rake em up, bag em up, and haul em to the curb-but fall leaves to a gardener are a resource to be celebrated-a crop to be harvested. Here are 5 tips to make the most of using leaves in your garden.
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[@takiyaps]

This city girl is new to gardening and composting. My grandma had tons of leaves decomposing behind her house from the previous season. I wasn't sure if they were any good. I knew exactly where to come to find out. Thank you Amy and Colby!!! Gardens that Matter is such a great resource 💚

[@GardensThatMatter]

Thanks for the kind words. Decomposing leaves behind your grandma's house is like finding a hidden treasure of garden goodness.

[@BenniLkitchengarden]

I do not like autumn and winter, but if there is one thing that makes it a little better then it must be that we have free access to harvest leaves and to make leaf mold. It is fun and so useful for me as I’m growing vegetables. Thanks for a great video👍

[@GardensThatMatter]

Agreed. More leaves and less mosquitos. Thanks for watching Benni. Stay warm.

[@elberthardy961]

This is my favorite video you have made so far! Great job! Brenda and I have always loved the Fall time. Today I found a beautiful original oil painting of a fall scene. Mountain lake thru orange yellow and brown fall trees at sunset. I had to buy it for her!

[@GardensThatMatter]

Thank you Elbert. You are very sweet, to us with compliments on our videos, and to Brenda with awesome fall gifts. Best wishes to you and Brenda in this wonderful season.

[@elberthardy961]

@@GardensThatMatter Thank you

[@charlotteseden9303]

I just discovered you and already learned so much. We just moved to a new house with over 7 acres and I was wondering where and how i should start my compost. No I know exactly what to do. Thanks so much. Keep up the good work.

[@robertdouglas8895]

I add mulched leaves to my red worm (vermi) compost. Use old, cool manure. Coffee grounds, not too much. Veggies, weeds and grocery store throw aways. Some sand for the worm digestion. Some forest soil for microorganisms. Old hay. Triple insulate in the winter with plastic sheeting and hay or leaves in between, then the snow covers that. I live in N Idaho. On Groundhog day, the worms are on the top of the pile and it's ready for potting soil. It took me a few years to perfect this method. Oh, and put piles in the shade.

[@readingbird9177]

Hi Amy, Can u pls make a video on growing pototes? Love to grow the way u did!

[@doriswoo4455]

You are GOOD , Lady !!

[@GardensThatMatter]

Thank you Doris.

[@itsalife8280]

Love the fancy split screen camera work :)

[@GardensThatMatter]

Thanks. Obviously we are not professional cinematographers, but we are learning as we go. Hopefully our videos will keep getting better. Thanks for watching.

[@jackiejack2031]

What if the leaves we're left on the ground all winter and sometimes a dog pooped on it but got picked up? Are the leaves still good? (A small line of leaves circling the yard & not all the time that happened) thank you so much for any help

[@loricandelaria3883]

Hi Amy☺ Just found out you have this channel!! Yahoo! I have also shared with some docents☺

[@GardensThatMatter]

Yay! Glad you found me here, Lori! :) And thanks for sharing it with other docents. Colby and I have been having fun with making these, and we're excited to spread the garden love!

[@tomfisher3117]

Hi Amy and Toby , thanks for another great video. I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. I planted a cover crop in my garden beds. Right now they are about 10" tall. After planting and germination, I found a source for leaves so I ordered 18 cubic feet of leaves for my 1100 sq. ft. garden. I have pretty good soil, originally hard clay, as I have taken care of it for years. So, here's my dilemma: Although I am composting a good portion of the leaves, I still have probably 12-15 cubic yards of shredded (once) leaves to deal with. I was thinking about putting the rest of my shredded leaves on my garden walks, letting the cover crop grow in my beds until, terminating it in the spring. Then I could rake shredded leaves onto my beds after I plant. My second option would be to terminate my cover crop right now and cover the beds with shredded leaves. Which option would you choose?

[@GardensThatMatter]

Hi Tom. I would go with option 1 (leave the cover crop and rake leaves from paths to beds in the spring). Cover crops are awesome, and alive. No need to terminate them until you're ready to plant something else. As you saw in the video, we stockpile our leaves (just a big pile) and use them throughout the year for compost, mulch, and occasional leaf mold (also a mulch). Beds that we don't get around to cover cropping will get a thick layer of leaves for the winter. Thanks for the question Tom, and happy gardening. If you haven't seen our new website and community platform, you can check it out at www.gardensthatmatter.mn.co

[@tomfisher3117]

@@GardensThatMatter Thanks Amy! Option 1 it is. Love your channel!

[@crossing3790]

Thank you for sharing. I have a large amount of horse manure (6 months old) which is now full of compost worms. I am now gathering a large amount of leaves and going over them several times with a lawn mower. My question is can I take these fresh cut leaves and mix them into the worm filled horse manure? Will it heat up and kill the worms or do you think it is safe to mix? Thank you and have a nice fall and winter

[@barbarasimoes9463]

As long as there is no solid bottom and the worms can move below the heat, it should be fine.

[@crossing3790]

@@barbarasimoes9463 thank you

[@sandrakhays]

Could you tell me about what is growing just behind you - clover?

[@GardensThatMatter]

Hi Sandra. Growing behind me in the video is a cover crop mix, which has oats, rye, clover, daikon radish, a tillage turnip and some other things. We also added some buckwheat we had left over from last year. The buckwheat is what you see blooming, with the white flowers. We recently did a video on cover crops where we explain the mix we used (minus the buckwheat). Cover crops are great in the fall. When everything else is turning brown, it is a nice flush of green. Here is a link to the cover crop video in case you missed it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpmniXaYrbyHppo Thank you for the question and for watching.

[@shadyman6346]

I thought it was a poppy field...

[@joethompson3931]

What if I get leaves from the woods over the winter (just laying there) will they be good for compost in the spring and summer. Use grass clippings and leaves, plus paper, coffee grounds and scraps. Do I cover it all

[@GardensThatMatter]

Yes, leaves from the woods is good material for compost (and mulch). We sometimes gather leaves and pine straw from our wooded areas (making sure we don't take too much and leaving areas vulnerable to weeds, thorns, and other invasives - when you move mulch from woods, it uncovers seeds that can then germinate) to use as brown material for our compost and for mulch in our growing area.

[@barbarasimoes9463]

If you offer to pick up neighbors' leaves, you will be very popular! If they aren't going to mow them in or have too many to mow in easily, they will be very happy to give you some. I do my neighbors' places on three sides. I bring over my leaf sweeper attached to the ride-on mower and make many trips. I@@GardensThatMatter

[@vikramsinhzala6405]

Why herbicide based leaves not use in this process ?

[@barbarasimoes9463]

I think that the thinking is that the herbicide will continue to kill plants. If they are used in a vegetable garden, the plants may take up the herbicide that then you may consume.

[@larryprovancher9731]

Good idea?

[@MManv84]

OMG you didn't start saying ANYTHIGN relevant until almost 2 minutes into the video

[@thebun]

So cringey. Ouch.

[@lepidlover0557]

????????

[@clarkl4177]

Just couldn't get past the demeaning, "maybe there's a football game on" (snap! Poof) Yikes.

[@GardensThatMatter]

No worries Clark. This is Colby (Amy's football loving husband) and I wrote the script. Have tried to get Amy to watch with me, but alas . . . . . she has other interests.