Fall Leaves! Uses?

When we lived where there were trees with beautiful fall colors, one of our pastimes was taking drives to just look at the fall leaves. I loved taking those drives in the country to look at all the pretty colors.

As the days begin to get shorter and shorter, it is time for all the different colors that the leaves have turned.



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I used to live where the scenery was much like that picture.

When the leaves start turning into those pretty colors, it is a sign that the leaves will start to fall. I loved raking up the leaves and so did my kids:



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My kids would always ask me "What are we going to do with all these leaves?"  Back then we lived in the city and I had never heard of permaculture.

These are some things that leaves can be used to get rid of them instead of sending them to a landfill.

I love putting the leaves around plants since this helps with weeding.

My favorite thing to do with leaves is to make leaf mold. All that needs to be done to make this is to find an empty corner in your yard and just pile all the leaves there and forget about the leaves until mother nature turns the leaves into leaf mold.

 



If more garden beds are planned for the future, the leaves could be piled there to just compost. Adding a green layer of vegetable scraps and grass clippings would also benefit from heating things up.

What are some neat ways you have found to use your fall leaves?



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Here are some threads all about leaf mold:

https://permies.com/t/125311/leaf-mold-awesome

https://permies.com/t/13602/Incredible-Amazing-Leaf-Mold

https://permies.com/t/23615/leaf-mold-fungi

https://permies.com/t/83710/leaves-leaf-mold-ready-mulch

https://permies.com/t/93143/cubic-feet-leaves-create-cuft

https://permies.com/t/137584/Fungi-Leaf-Mold

Great post! This time of year, I get a little crazy when we go places and see all the bags of leaves at the curb in garbage bags. Leaves aren't trash! So we rescue as many as we can. It's these that we use. The ones that fall in our yard, we leave where they land.
We use the bags full of leaves to insulate our water tank. We just stack them up around it like bricks. Then when spring arrives, we empty them out anywhere we need some mulch. It's usually half way to leaf mold by then. We use lots of the rescued leaves to mulch our garlic and other plants that need it. Any bare soil gets a blanket of leaves, as do areas we want to improve the soil. I usually save the extra colorful bags of leaves for the top layer of mulch, that way I get to enjoy their beauty in addition to all the lovely things they do for the soil and wildlife! The birds love hanging out in the areas we dump leaves, searching for bugs.
The empty bags are a great resource too.
Hoping in the future to use the bags of rescued leaves in our chicken coop and run, kinda like this:

I haven't tried this, but definitely an intriguing idea...

I'm wondering could you grow potatoes directly out off the bag? Just stick some in maybe with a shovel of soil, then when the spuds are ready you tip the bag and get spuds and composted leaves

This past year I took sprouted potatoes and set the on slightly disturbed pasture (I scratched the surface with two fingers before setting the potato down).  Then I covered them with a foot of leaves that had been in the roadside ditch since the previous fall.  I got a tolerable crop of potatoes from it.  Not as good as from the garden but the pasture plants were smothered and I got some spuds.

OMG -USES OF BAGS OF LEAVES?? Holding down tarps over manure piles/black plastic bed covering in the winter; extending my garden paths/bed surrounds over cardboard (weed-eating is a waste of energy); adding to compost pile in Summer - alternating with kitchen scraps and "greens"; putting in chicken run for winter; worm bedding, though I haven't done this yet - I have to "save" worms when I pick up the bags! The stored bags are even improving the soil by shading out weeds and giving worms protection.
TIPS: When picking up from private homes in town, I'm always careful to be sure bags are in the proper place for "waste-management" pick up, and I'm always respectful of walking on their grass. etc. In our county, waste company posts dates of collection on-line.
Also, I try to lay the bags down at my place, with the openings toward the ground so they don't get filled with rain/snow - many are "degradable", but this practice will help. I also save the heavy-duty bags.
Best wishes to all in collecting this wonderful, FREE resource.

We have a few exterior water faucets around the property that don't get drained in the winter. I fill 7 gallon buckets with leaves and put them over the faucets , then make a pile of leaves over the bucket to insulate the faucets.

The leaves in the garden area go to the compost.

But the majority of leaves I rake up go to bird run. I call the birds my mini mulching crew. I pile leaves at the top of the run and pull some really nice manure enriched oak leaf muclh from the bottom. Our run naturally funnels into a spot at the bottom where I have a section of fence thats easily removable. I get 3 to 4 yards of mulch every couple months. The piles of leaves also provide stimulation for the birds. They always sound happy when there a fresh pile of leaves.

Since I live in a live oak and juniper forest I miss the pretty colors of fall:


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How do you uses your fall leaves?

I use leaves in two primary ways: as fall mulch in my raised beds and for deep litter in my chicken run.

Leaves + chickens + scratching + poo = a great garden supplement in the spring.

I have a question about using walnut leaves. The huge old tree at my new place produced an enormous amount of leaves. A fabulous and much needed source of biomass for the denuded bare soil in the former garden area.

But how long would these need to compost for before they're safe to use without needing to be concerned about the juglone? Any tips on how I can speed up the process?

One of my uses in a theoretical vista, is gathering leaves from off site locations, to be used as bacterial inoculations, collecting microbial life from off site, to be deposited at site, to strengthen then microbial cordage of life and my property. Speaking of which every chance I get I should do this, as I visit the woods often, need to be taking samples more often. Grabbed my uncles Japanese maple leaves today for microbial reasons, my parents red maple leaves recently for the same reason, deposited in chicken coop.

As for most of my leaves, I will see a 30 percent chance of rain 7 days out, for about the last 10 weeks, I will burn until forecast is secure at average 70 percent chance, ever week this change in forecast occurs, always starting at 30 or so ending at 70+. I did not feel confident not burning, for fear of drought, last I had a fire, an inch was forecast, during rain had a fire, got at least an extra inch out of it. I have finally gotten to naturally occurring 70-90 percent chance a week out, so I feel less need to be the rain maker. This is certainly the culturally respected way, for my location in North America, as Native American where habitual prescribed burners until forced out of the practice. Who burned more acreage even in west, then out of control burns now do. I have finally gotten some of my land to turn to moss under canopy by keeping leaves off surface, I happen to like moss.

Jane Mulberry wrote:But how long would these need to compost for before they're safe to use without needing to be concerned about the juglone? Any tips on how I can speed up the process?

When we lived in the Piney woods of East Texas there were a lot of walnut trees one block from our lot.

We cleared several trees off our lot that I never knew what variety the trees were.

We had a fabulous garden while we lived there.

I feel if I had all those leaves, I would compost them in a spot away from other compost piles.

After you feel the compost has sat a long time my suggestion would be to try planting something to see how it reacts.

Another suggestion would be to rake the leaves from a shady spot and harvest the hummus aka leaf mold.  Try planting directly into that.    

I would love to hear the results of the experiments.

Adding soil to composts makes it compost faster, I believe.        

I've done some reading on walnut leaves this afternoon, Anne, as I do have a huge volume of them!

One source says 4 weeks composting is enough to make walnut leaf mold safe to use, another says 3 years! My thought was to compost it for two. I am also thinking the leaves might work as cover material for the "solids" buck in the toilet, and compsoting it with the human waste will accelerate the process plus both need much the same composting time. I am thinking maybe let the piles sit for two years before I try to use them for planting.

This list seems to have plenty of plants I could use in a walnut tree guild.

The other factor is I think my tree is a Persian walnut, which is apparently less allelopathic than black walnut.

We will see how it works out!

I build beds out of pallets and fill them with leaves.
I plant dumpster potatoes in the leaves,  to encourage the soil life.



I also fill the chicken run with leaves, and feed them there as well.
Their natural scratching habit creates great compost.

I'm working on creating a "woodland" and the basis of that bed is about a foot of leaves.

I like to have a wire cage or bigger bed filled with leaves right next to each perennial, like a tree, bush or vine.
I add urine and water to that as a water to feed the plant.

Each container gets a layer of leaves that decay over the winter.
I uses urine on these leaves to speed the decay.

I’m pretty boring with mine - shred and mulch, then compost any leftovers. I have the Worx shredder, which does well to break them down.

This winter I am planning to use them to insulate my hydrangeas, using some snow fencing to keep them in place.

I've been wondering if dried and shredded leaves could be a substitute for peat or coir in potting mix.

Hi Dan,

Welcome to Permies.

Dan Lawton wrote:I've been wondering if dried and shredded leaves could be a substitute for peat or coir in potting mix.

Welcome to Permies!

Leaves can indeed be used in potting mixes, the best way is in the form of 'leaf mold' which is essentially aged/composted leaves. I have started using a percentage with good success so far in my potting mixes.

Dan Lawton wrote:I've been wondering if dried and shredded leaves could be a substitute for peat or coir in potting mix.

Hi Dan, welcome to the forum!

This article suggests composting the leaves first:

If you want to add dead leaves to potted plants, shred them first into smaller pieces and leave them to compost (this is known as leaf mold). They will add valuable microorganisms and slow-release nutrients to your potted plants. As well as improving soil structure. However, only add a small amount.

Here are some videos that might be interesting:

I spent the last month  getting paid to clean up the the leaves from lawns in the city where I live. I took them home. Here is how I use them. I topped all my hugels with a couple feet of leaves and a layer of soil from the oldest hugel. I put about two feet down on my no till vegetable garden. These will be about six inches next spring. I pull them aside and plant on the soil surface beneath them. Those leaves will mulch my vegetables once they are started. I also stockpiled a large pile of leaves. As materials come in next year that need disposal. Things like weeds, rotten firewood, fill dirt, hedge clippings and such, I pile them into mounds and let them sit. The thick layers of leaves in the summer are pretty effective at smothering the perennial weeds I dispose of. I have highly fungal decomposition. All kinds of organic materials are included and they all break down over time, but a few things get sifted out when I'm looking for a batch of humus. The stuff I sift out goes into a newer pile.
If I had more room I would like to make hot compost piles with the autumn leaves as a carbon source and lake weeds that my county pays to dispose of for the nitrogen. I would harvest heat from that to heat my home or green house like I read Jean Pain did.

I wonder if they could be used for benign insulation too, sort of like straw bale houses. I have heard it rumored that enough leaves piled up as a debris shelter can keep a person quite warm.

Welcome to the forum, Joe!

Getting paid for racking leaves and hauling them away sounds like a great way to get and use fall leaves.

And using those same leaves to suppress summer weeds is a great idea.

Maieshe Ljin wrote:I wonder if they could be used for benign insulation too, sort of like straw bale houses. I have heard it rumored that enough leaves piled up as a debris shelter can keep a person quite warm.

The leaves would need to be dried really well to prevent mold issues when used as insulation in a house.

Here is a thread on using leaves for cob:

https://permies.com/t/202704/dry-leaves-leaf-cob-insulation

If I were building a debris shelter I would want a nice thick layer of leaves to use as a mattress and to help insulated from the cold ground.

Joe Uicker wrote:I spent the last month  getting paid to clean up the the leaves from lawns in the city where I live. I took them home. Here is how I use them. I topped all my hugels with a couple feet of leaves and a layer of soil from the oldest hugel. I put about two feet down on my no till vegetable garden. These will be about six inches next spring. I pull them aside and plant on the soil surface beneath them. Those leaves will mulch my vegetables once they are started. I also stockpiled a large pile of leaves. As materials come in next year that need disposal. Things like weeds, rotten firewood, fill dirt, hedge clippings and such, I pile them into mounds and let them sit. The thick layers of leaves in the summer are pretty effective at smothering the perennial weeds I dispose of. I have highly fungal decomposition. All kinds of organic materials are included and they all break down over time, but a few things get sifted out when I'm looking for a batch of humus. The stuff I sift out goes into a newer pile.
If I had more room I would like to make hot compost piles with the autumn leaves as a carbon source and lake weeds that my county pays to dispose of for the nitrogen. I would harvest heat from that to heat my home or green house like I read Jean Pain did.

Getting paid to rake and haul away the leaves is great! Double payday especially when you want the leaves!!  I've done some of this in the past. Recently just been a good neighbor and getting the leaves from next-door neighbors for free.

Quite a lot of landscapers (the mow and blow guys) also have to pay to unload their leaves (if they don't have their own yard, or if a closer site is just more convenient...). In my area, they're paying $12-14 per cubic yard to dump them at a large landscape firm (that's like $100 for a small dump truck load). So, with the space, one could potentially also get paid to have leaves delivered by such landscape guys... at the very least, you can get them delivered, without having to rake, or collect them yourself.

If I could make a mountain of leaves to sit upon and gaze upon my acreage, I would be a happy man.

I incorporate a lot of leaves in my chipped walkways in my garden to intermingle and break down over the winter season. They can be slippery if you only layer them on top so raking them in is important. I have found my inoculated mushrooms enjoy chewing them up and spreading mycelium through the paths that are chock full of leaves.

I am planning on making leaf mold via picking up bagged leaves but I have found that they make a great bulk ingredient for making compost throughout the other three seasons. It is nice to not have to 'run out' of ingredients as you form new piles or bulk up other piles.

For the first time this year, I'm planning on dumping a bunch in my chickens run to see how they interact with them. I'm hoping that they will mechanically till them into the earth and shred them up. This will be my focus for more resilient leaves such as oak. Who needs a shredder when you have tiny raptors at your beck and call? I'm thinking a few tosses of scratch will motivate them plenty. Eventually I will dig/sift the run soil and incorporate it into my garden systems.

Timothy Norton wrote:For the first time this year, I'm planning on dumping a bunch in my chickens run to see how they interact with them. I'm hoping that they will mechanically till them into the earth and shred them up. This will be my focus for more resilient leaves such as oak. Who needs a shredder when you have tiny raptors at your beck and call? I'm thinking a few tosses of scratch will motivate them plenty. Eventually I will dig/sift the run soil and incorporate it into my garden systems.

Your general idea is good, but chickens don't scratch leaves "into the earth".  They do scratch them around looking for seeds, bugs and other goodies, but do minimal mixing with the soil.  They will break down the leaves, poo on them and will eventually produce an excellent compost.  You can then easily scoop it up and use it for gardens, under trees/bushes, sell it, etc.

I, too, volunteer to leaf sweep my neighbors' lawns and then bring the leaves home, where I mulch them up to put on gardens, especially back in my mushroom beds which need regular "feeding".  I'm thinking that I may just use them as my veg. garden's pathways.  I've had landscaping cloth down for over 20 years as the pathways, but it is starting to really wear down and weeds are poking through all of the holes and where soil has settled on it, new weeds sprout and create holes with their tough roots.  I'd really like to get it out of there.  In the past, I've chopped up leaves and put them in the veg. garden proper, but I've found that my garden hasn't done much since I started doing that, but the pathways would be ideal, I think.

Barbara Simoes wrote: I'm thinking that I may just use them as my veg. garden's pathways.

The only negative I experienced was that mats of leaves can get slick when wet. Keeping that in mind, there are a few solutions such as incorporating some woody mass (twigs and chips) or grit such as fireplace sweepings to provide traction.

I know exactly what you mean about leaves being slick.  I almost wiped out in the back where I have the mushrooms.  We get a lot of rain here, and although it had been dry for a while, when I went to step, a whole bunch of leaves just slid away.  I might have to rethink this, but the garden is in full sun and the soil is very sandy there, so I'm hoping that it would work, but definitely something to consider.  Thank you!

I gather many many many loads of leaves and dump them between my planting rows. The cattle panel trellises mostly hold them in place from the wind. I also pull wheelbarrows full of soggy, partly rotted leaves from our creek. It’s just excellent for soil building!

I don't have a homestead but have ton's of leaves (mostly maple). I want to experiment so, last Fall started raking them into piles when dry, run over with mulching lawnmower then store them in large garbage cans.
At planting time (this season), I spread mulched leaves on top of raised beds and around  sprouting vegetables. After all that, leaves are wetted to keeps soil moist. This Fall, after the harvest,  I'll leave the leaves in, turn them gently into soil and repeat the process in Spring.

Once before, I tried growing potatoes in leaf mold (watched YT video) but it didn't work for me at all, so I'm trying something different.  

I use leaves for animal litter. I use it in my goat barn for deep winter mulch, in the chicken next boxes ( although daylily leaves are the best) and to cover animal poops in their yards. I try to never leave bare soil or excrement visible.