Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi Chaps,
Just wanna run this past you all - I just don't know the answer. There are a few Sycamore just in the next Garden (at bottom of mine) that shed it seems ALL their leaves on my Garden each Autumn. I don't really mind this, but Pete seems to think it OK to leave them on the flower beds - that the Worms will digest and take them down to nourish the soil. Is this right, or should they be removed cos they're hiding places for slugs etc? They are about 6 inches deep!!

Thanks

Ange
xx

Hi Ange - I think that you COULD leave (haha!) them there, but I would be tempted to clear them into either black bags or a big chicken wire 'bin' and let them rot down there for 12 months.

They will make the most wonderful compost for you to to put on the flower beds.

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sun 30/11/2008......Indoor Allotmenteering too!.....

Hi Ange,

Don't sycamore leaves have seeds for new trees in them?

I am hoping to "plant" a few of the leaves I've collected to make some trees for cutting up for firewood so I hope for my sake I'm right and for your sake that I'm wrong

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

Hmm - I guess that the 'helicopters' might well be mixed up with the leaves. Hadn't thought of that.

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sun 30/11/2008......Indoor Allotmenteering too!.....

You'll also notice on other threads that leaves can take a year or two to rot down completely. People tend to keep their leaves separate from their usual compost heap for this reason. I think Pete's skiving!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Thanks Hazel . Umm - I did mentione didn't I, that we seem to get ALL their leaves? The plastic bag suggestion - I currently have 13 bags of the damn things rotting down (only from the past 4-6 weeks worth) at side of house! So, what with them and the compost bin, and the Wormery, I just might open up the garden next year - ya know, like the stately homes do???

Far better to rot them down in a pile and apply the rotted mix to bare patches.

Reasons:
wind moves leaves around.. They may not stay on beds (in our garden they end up everywhere)
Birds scratch and move them
they take 12 months to break down.
they look ugly.

Why don't you pile a manure mulch on top of them and it will all rot down together! It'll stop the leaves blowing around and the top soil will be improved by all of natures little helpers incorporating the mulch into the soil! It will suppress weeds and the ones that do make it through the mulch will be easy to pull out.

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

No, the leaves don't contain seeds - but you may find sycamore "helicopters" amongst them. My kids used to collect them and plant them in the veg plot!!! Usually fall before the leaves.

Yes, you attract worms but also slugs, with any mulch.
If slugs aren't too bothersome i would leave the leaves in situ, for the hungry blackbirds to sort through for bugs and beasties. The worms will pull the leaves under into the soil (and worms prefer their food left on the surface, not dug in)
I don't leave mulches on my veg plot any more as I am over-run with slugs and really don't want to provide free accommodation for any more.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

The many types of slugs are just part of the soil fauna that helps break down organic matter. I don't think you can be too piccy about which invertebrates assist in decomposition. A few slugs are a small sacrifice for a healthy topsoil and plants aren't they? Maybe the healthier plants will not be affected so much by the slugs who will have plenty to munch on down below? I would say that a soil that has no slugs in it is an unhealthy soil!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Dunno, Snadger. I would say that the fewer slugs the better. A soil that has no worms in it is an unhealthy soil. At least worms only eat decomposing stuff, and not your precious fresh veggies (which slugs do)

Hello Ange, I would scoop the leaves off your flower beds etc and dump them in some unused corner. Sycamore leaves rot down very quickly - not like beach which can take years . I reckon come spring you would have good leaf mould to dig in.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

A direct quote from Wilkepedia "Slugs play an important role in ecology by eating decomposting matter, such as leaves, fungus, and decaying vegetable material......"

To me, slugs are just another animal in the food chain and serve a useful purpose.
Show me a compost heap that hasn't got a slug in it!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)