this is like gold for your garden and
I'm going to talk about the top concerns
people have about this as well as some
myths about them and then I'm also going
to talk about all the benefits of them
for your garden let's talk about why
these leaves are so important let's
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go let's talk about myth or concern
number one and that is Will diseases
from trees affect my garden well the
quick answer is no because the diseases
that affect trees do not transfer in
effect the annual plants that you
usually have growing in your garden now
if you're going to use say sweet gum
leaves and they've been infected by some
disease and you spread them around the
bottom of your Apple Tree then that
could transfer some disease but if you
are putting them into your garden and
first making a soil or a compost out of
them there's nothing to worry about okay
concern number two is Will oak leaves
specifically or or pine needles acidify
my soil and also the answer is no oak
leaves and pine needles do have an
acidity of 4.5 to 4.7 but once they've
broken down once they've composted out
that neutralizes and if you put them
into your garden and into that soil and
build soil with them in your garden it's
not going to acidify the soil in any
appreciable way this has been tested
over and over again but the old wives
tail that they acidify the soil just
keep keeps pushing through they won't so
don't worry about it and if you are very
concerned about it you can blend all of
your leaves from the different trees
together so that will even lower
whatever acidity remains in those leaves
when it is composted but like I said
it's hardly a trace at all so mix 1/4
oak leaves with 3/4 other leaves that
you have on the property if you are
still concerned about it and I'll give
you even one more point to try to
alleviate your concern once those leaves
are in the compost pile if they're oak
or if they are pine needles then the
worms will start to break them down very
quickly that will help to neutralize
anything and your soil is naturally
buffered from uh big changes in PH with
additives except if you're using really
high acidic additives like sulfur okay
on to the next point and that is do you
have to grind up your leaves to make a
better compost and I'm going to say yes
if you want compost in the short term we
grind up all of our leaves and that's so
we can get better air and water
infiltration into it there's more
surface area that helps it break down
way faster than if you left your leaves
whole like these oak leaves everybody's
come out in the fall time after a rain
and all these leaves are just matted
together they're creating this sticky
mat that's just all stuck together
they're not going to break down very
fast doing that they will eventually yes
but it's much better to to grind up your
leaves and if you are using them as a
mulch in your garden and not putting
them in a compost pile first which is
perfectly acceptable then the those
whole leaves holding that water together
will create this mat over the top of
your garden bed and that will hold water
in and potentially too much water it
won't give things a chance to breathe
and break down properly so just keep
those things in mind the last concern I
usually hear is do you have to add
anything to your leaves to help them but
before I do that I want to send you down
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answer is no you don't have to add
anything to leaves there is plenty of
bacterial activity and plenty of fungal
activity that happen in the leaves as
they are breaking down now there's two
types of compost I guess you could say
one is leaf compost and that is adding
layers of leaves with some layers of
green nitrogen and that could be grass
clippings it could be weeds it could be
manure from your chickens whatever it
might be and that's kind of uh that
layering method everybody knows about
you go four to five parts carbon which
are our leaves and one part nitrogen and
then you keep layering that up until you
get about a 3X 3T pile what we do is we
create what's called leaf mold leaf mold
is different than Leaf compost in that
you do not add any nitrogens to the
leaves what that's going to do is help
the fungal growth in this Bloom and be
more strong than if you are adding it in
the regular compost pile bacteria thrive
in a regular compost pile in a little
bit hotter process this is a cooler
process and I prefer making leaf mold
although I do make some other compost
with our chicken manure some leaves and
some scraps from the kitchen and weeds
from the garden things like that but the
majority of what I make is leaf mold
compost because that fungal development
is really much better at healing dead
soils so if you have a really sandy soil
or a heavy clay soil then you can add
the leaf mold to help rejuvenate it
quicker what that's doing too is adding
what's called humus once it breaks down
adding humus to the soil to help aate
the soil and now I'm going to talk about
those benefits adding leaf mold or Leaf
compost to your soil is going to help
your soil structure it's going to help
air that soil which is extremely
important and here's a cool little side
benefit about leaves and that is
pound-for-pound they are higher in
Mineral content than manure so when you
add those leaves you are getting some
great Rich sources of minerals next
benefit is you are feeding the soil
microorganisms and the worms and we all
know how important worms are to your
garden the worm castings that the worms
are producing are some of the best
fertilizer you can get anywhere in
Additionally the good fungal growth
Within These leaves is helping to feed
the soil microorganisms they work
together symbiotically now if you're
using them for a mulch on your garden
beds they are obviously going to over
time break down and benefit the soil
just like if they were in a separate uh
leaf mold compost pile or Leaf compost
pile themselves but using them as a
mulch has its benefits also you're going
to prevent soil erosion in your bed so
if You' got uh beds that are just
mounted up you can put the leaves on
them to control erosion you can put the
leaves on them to improve irration into
the soil and feed the microorganisms
that are already in your garden bed it
also helps a lot with moisture
evaporation and moisture retention it
helps to regulate it so here in the
spring in East Texas we get so much rain
it's like monsoon season and then we
have extremely dry period in the summer
to late summer so having a covering of
that leaf mulch over the top of your
beds is really important any moisture
that you have in there during the
drought is going to get trapped and
conversely it will help evaporate
moisture out if you've got too much the
final benefit that we have you can look
at this bed we don't have any weeds in
it so if you're covering your bed with
this leaf mulch then it's going to
suppress weeds that's a huge huge
benefit and you can't do that with many
other things that are going to be the
same benefit as the leaves so yes you
could put hay here and supress the weeds
but it's not going to be as beneficial
as leaves are to feeding the soil and
doing everything I just mentioned you
can do this with wood chips as well and
I do that also however they obviously
take way longer to break down even if
they have the same benefits we do our
Leaf composting and our leaf mold cre
ation in a lot of different ways we have
a Johnson Sue bioreactor and if you
haven't seen that video click at the top
of the screen we also just lay it out
like this and then we have also a
contained compost pile where we do the
layering method and make compost as I
dig down in here I can show you it's a
little dry right now but you can see the
fungal growth on this and I grab some
from the other side on the edge and you
can see that it is broken down almost to
like a dirt consistency
on the edges already and this has been
out here for less than one year but look
at that richness leaves can be obtained
from almost anywhere if you live in an
area that doesn't have a lot of large
deciduous trees try to find them if you
can in the cities where they may have
them for us we've got a ton of trees
here in East Texas and we can also go to
all of the neighborhoods in the
surrounding City and pick up people's
leaves which they just leave out by the
curb for us I hope I alleviated your
concerns today and showed you how good
of a soil conditioner and soil
fertilizer leaves are do whatever you
can to get some for your garden now go
click on these videos right here which
is our playlist for composting have a
beautiful blessed day see you next time
bye
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