You've raked up the leaves, now what?
Leaves, leaves, leaves…everywhere I turn there are mounds of the crunchy reminders that fall is in full swing. The maple in our front yard has almost finished dropping its crimson jewels; now we have work to do. But rather than look at it as a chore, I see another opportunity to Go Green and Save Green.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 27 percent of U.S. waste is leftover food and yard trimmings. That’s more than a fourth of our trash that could be turned from a problem into a valuable resource—compost. Bagging leaves uses unnecessary landfill space, removes nutrients from the environment, and costs tax payers more money in service fees. Leaves are such a burden on landfills that some states like Minnesota have banned disposing of leaves with garbage for the past 20 years.
There is a better solution: shred ‘em and spread ‘em! This weekend the whole family is pitching in to rake the leaves, feed the shredder, and spread the piles around the yard. Most of the year my husband Bob runs over leaves with the lawn mower, which helps mix their nutrients into the soil. During fall, there’s too much volume and if left alone, matted leaves will create fungus and kill the grass sheltered from the sun.
With a leaf blower / vacuum (a tool that works with snow too), Bob sucks up the leaves. This shreds and shrinks them down to take up 10 times less space. Shredding leaves is essential to breaking them down efficiently. Since we are doing a winter garden this year of kale, spinach, and sweet potatoes, we spread most of the contents around trees and berry bushes like mulch. The rest goes into our compost bin. When periodically mixed with a shovel, the mixture will become nutrient rich soil by spring. Plus it’s FREE and we didn’t have to haul it to our house in a flatbed.
What tips can you share about turning leaves into compost or mulch?
~Margaret
Margaret blogs about a Green Triangle Philosophy: Go Green, Save Green, and Give Green. Learn more at http://bluefrogcreations.blogspot.com/
