I’m ahead of the game! At least for the moment. All my open beds are weeded and shaped up, and I’ve put them to bed for the winter with the thickest leaf covering they have ever enjoyed.
I reap huge benefits by covering the garden with leaves. The soil remains softer as the leaves act as an insulator and protector from winter weather. Weed growth is almost non-existent, no sunshine – no weeds.
In the spring, many of the beds will be ready to plant, with minimal plowing and raking required. The leaves will be used as mulch in the paths and will break down into great fertilizer. The leaves add a huge amount of organic matter to the clayey garden and, over the years, the improved friability of the garden soil is obvious.
This method cannot work for everybody, but if you have them, why not use them?
We always put leaves in our garden and even worked them in. Two years ago we had our soil tested and the comment was. Stop putting leaves in. It has too much.
Do you chip up the leaves or leave them whole? When I leave them on my wildflower garden the leaves are so large that the little spring shoots come right up in the middle of the leaves and I have to rescue them. I’m going to try this on my vegetable garden as we have so many oak leaves everywhere.
Noel, I agree with you, if you have them use them. I also covered them with black plastic, first time I ever covered them with plastic. I did that with my garlic also.
I have covered a couple flower beds with leaves this year for the first time. I am curios how it will be accepted by the plants. I think it was a good thing to do. Time will tell. I must say that I have gladiolus bed/garden. I did not put in leaves on it. I dig the glads out every fall, so thus, I was not thinking that I had nothing left to protect anything in those beds. But, after reading your article, it is clear to me that I will cover those beds next fall. I’ll hope the leaves left for the following year will assist in keeping weeds under a sort of control.
Susan, I don’t chop the leaves, but I don’t work them into the soil directly, either. They remain in the beds as a cover, but in the spring, I rake them back into the paths where they act as a mulch and break down there. I think they would be too acidic to work directly into the soil I’m growing my vegetables in.