Autumn leaves

22 Nov

It’s a sunny day in November and I’m going to spend a couple of hours gathering up leaves. There are a few large Sycamore and Ash trees around the edges of the garden. After the long dry summer, it feels like they have shed their leaves quite late this year. Now though the garden is full of leaves. I’m making clearing the leaves a priority for two reasons. Firstly, I want to remove leaves from the grass. Wildflowers compete best against grasses when the soil fertility is low. Adding nutrients to a lawn or meadow, whether that’s fertiliser or vegetation like grass cuttings or leaves which will rot down, benefits the grasses to the determent of wildflowers. I’m trying to encourage more wildflowers as I turn what was a lawn into a meadow, so the leaves need clearing.

Im planning to rake up the leaves from the grass.

It’s also a job well worth doing because rotted leaves make leaf mould which has many uses in the garden. One year old leaf mould can be used as a mulch, a winter covering and as a soil improver. After 2 years leaf mould can be used as compost. A leaf litter cage can be as simple as a cylinder of chicken wire in a corner of the garden. In some places in the garden, I’ve raked up the leaves which had collected in pockets blown by the wind and put them into the leaf litter cages. Where the leaves are more spread out on the grass I’ve mowed them up, combining leaf litter collection with a late Autumn mow. This has given me a good mixture of shredded leaves and grass cuttings which is great for my compost heaps.

Decaying organic matter, such as piles of leaf litter, provides an important habitat for decomposers, which break organic matter down into substances plants need to grow. By recycling organic waste, soil animals such as woodlice and earthworms play a vital role in the ecosystem. Once they have started this process by chewing up and excreting detritus microorganisms continue the work further breaking down organic material.

Decomposers such as worms and woodlice not only perform this important function, they also provide food for some of our favourite garden animals whose numbers are declining, mammals such as hedgehogs and birds such as Song Thrushes. Allowing decay in our gardens is very important for increasing our gardens biodiversity. For more information and ideas on how to rewild your garden visit www.chalkhillrewilding.co.uk