Leave your leaves?

Its that time of year when the trees release their bounty of leaves. Back in spring I was so excited to see the new, almost transparent foliage, knowing that this was the start of warmer (hopefully) and longer days to come. But now, just days away from November the descent has begun in earnest. So what are we to do with all of these leaves. Do we gather them up and store them in the hope that within a couple of years we have some leaf mould to condition the soil with or do we chuck them in the garden waste bin and send them off in the recycling? Well! despite creating a perfect wire basket as a leaf container and waiting and hoping, it seems that last year's gatherings are still as far from leaf mould as they could possibly be. In fact they look like they have been newly collected. I did try once before to make the precious leaf mould by putting the leaves in a black bin bag, wetting them and making a few holes and I did kind of get some breakdown, but the bag seemed to deteriorate before the leaves did.

This year I going to take a different tack. I'm going to leave the leaves. Not on the grass as they are the paths around the garden and are already quite wet as at this time of year the sun hardly makes it into the garden, and also when you have a pooch that does small leaf coloured poops on the path, its handy to be able to see them to pick up before you step in them....ewwww! And also the Japanese garden simply cannot be covered in leaves as it should be pristine at all times. This year I'm going to let the leaves lie thick in the borders. I'll probably make sure that they don't cover the crowns of the plants, just to save any rotting off, but I am banking on the leaves becoming a good, toasty mulch that will add a protective layer on the soil. This will also ensure a winter habitat for the myriad of insects who will find a home among the leaves, sounds like a win-win to me!

Those leaves that once heralded the onset of spring , now cascade down into the garden.