First post on this news gem of a forum. Happy to have stumbled upon it.
I'm still trying to figure out a good technique for making leaf mold. I work for a school garden which is located next to our green dumpster used by the landscapers. Needless to say, I now have piles and piles of fall leaves (CA coastal ornamentals, mostly) and nearly unlimited fresh grass clippings. I've got the composting program going strong and am now working on my leaf mold production. So far what I have going is chipping the leaves (using a Flowtron shredder) into garbage pails, soaking the leaves by filling the barrel with water then draining, and then packing the leaves into what I'm calling my leaf mold molder (images attached). The molder is made from a 4 foot wide 1/4 inch hardware cloth, held in a silo shape by old bike tires (I also run an after school bike mechanics program and have incorporated a lot of old bike parts into the garden). I am experimenting with the moisture barrier cover. So far I've tried using fence privacy cloth, but that seemed to allow too much evaporation during summer. So, now I just pull a contractors bag over it and slip the tires on, and it seems to hold the moisture. I've not yet harvested as my oldest silo is only 6 months old, but the level of leaves keeps dropping in it. Looking forward to the harvest...
