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How Can Brown Turn to Green?

November 25, 2007 By: Anna11 Comments

leaves

Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love the fall foliage with its different colors of red, yellow, and orange. As beautiful as the colorful foliage seems, many people dread fall because they have to rake up all those leaves. On top of the hard work, they have to pay someone to haul them away. But what happens if I told you that those leaves are one of the most valuable assets in your garden? They are made by Mother Nature, herself. On top of this, they are plentiful and free.

Just think. No only do you no longer need to spend money having your leaves hauled away; you also don’t need to continue spending money on hardwood mulches or compost every year. Leaves help to make excellent compost and mulch. This is how brown turns into green.

In addition, “Yard wastes make up about 20 percent of the solid waste that ends up in our landfills. It includes leaves, brush, grass clippings and other organic materials. Composting is one way to reduce waste accumulation,” according to the Montana State University Extension in an article reprinted May, 2003. So, how do you utilize the leaves to create mulch or compost?

Just Mow Them

Let’s say you only want to get rid of your leaves and are not interested in composting or mulch. You could simply mow your leaves. You should never leave whole leaves on grass during the winter. The leaves will deprive your grass of oxygen and encourage pest. Take your lawn mover, set the blade to a height of 3”, and run over them until they are in small pieces. It is recommended that you start mowing when some grass is still peeking through the leaves. Otherwise, you will have to suck up or spread out some of the leaves so that there is not more than 1” of mulch on the ground. They will naturally decompose and add to your soil.

If you wish to purchase an electric cordless mulching lawn mower, David Beaulieu, who write a column about landscaping at About.com, wrote an interesting article in which he recommended the Black & Decker electric mower for lawns that are flat and less than 1/3 of an acre.

Use the as Compost

In order to compost, you will need a certain amount of “brown” to make compost. The first year I started composting, I could not understand why my compost looked like sludge. I was not putting in enough brown. Where was I supposed to get brown in the summer? Leaves were nowhere to be found. Plus, I did not want to use paper. Whenever I used straw, it would take forever to decompose. (Perhaps it would have helped if had I cut it up.)

According to the Cornell Cooperative Extension, “brown layers should be two to three times as thick as green layers. Green layers should be no more than 1 or 2 inches thick.”1 Green layers are comprised of grass clippings, coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit waste. Brown layers are made up of leaves, straw, or paper. If you are interested to learn more about composting, the Extension has a terrific article on the lasagna method.

At the end of the summer, I started collecting the fall leaves in plastic garage bags for lack of a better collection system for the following spring. I stored them in the garage. This summer, I was prepared to make compost and realized by the end of the season, I still did not collect enough leaves.

This year, I collected double the amount of leaves for next year, but in my hurray, I forgot to shred them. Next spring, I will need to use a leaf shredder such as the Flowtron LE 900 recommended in Mother Earth News’ 2004 article, “Learn to Love Your Leaves,” or a mulching lawn mower. The chopped leaves decomposed quicker than whole leaves in a composter.

Use as mulch for Garden Beds

Leaves are great mulch. Every year, I pay for hardwood mulch for my beds to help retain water, and so I don’t have to weed as much. About a month after I put down the hardwood mulch, a fungus starts growing in certain places. It looks like throw-up. Sorry to be so descriptive, but there just is not better words to describe what it looks like. Needless to say, it is hideous looking.

As I mentioned above, I store my leaves in garage bags that I reuse each year. This is not the best option. 3 bind system Gardener Supply has a single wire compost bin or three-bin system that you could use to store the leaves. I found the wire cage to be a little bit flimsy and if you live in a high wind area, you will need to purchase their earth staples. Overall, it is not a bad solution.

If you would like to make your own mulch bin, see the article from the Montana State University Extension. Although the article deals with yard compost bins, you can use the same materials to make yard mulch bins. If you find that your leaf mulch starts to resemble dark black soil, this is compost. You do not want to use the decomposed leaves as mulch.

It is recommended that you do not put more than 3 to 4” of leaves in your garden bed. Leaves should decompose about a year before you put them in your garden. Researcher, Abigail Maynard of the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station, observed that fresh leaves can inhibit the growth of certain crops.

Next time you go outside an eye all those leaves all over your lawn, just think of the gold out there for the taking. Free mulch and free compost. Isn’t Mother Nature wonderful?

Sources:

“Learn to Love Your Leaves,” Heidi Hunt, Mother Earth New, October/November 2004

“Leave Leaves Alone,” Willi Evan Galloway, Organic Gardening.

1”Lasagna Composting”, Cornell Cooperative,Tomkins County, http://tinyurl.com/2fvcc4

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Anna Hackman is the editor of Green Talk, and owner of The Naked Botanical and a avid (okay obsessed) gardener. She also loves video and podcasting and hosts Green Talk TV and Green Talk Radio. Her most important role is being a mother of four boys.

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Comments

  1. 1

    April says

    November 29, 2007 at 8:56 am

    I pile mine up in the corner of the garden. Hopefully a hedgehog or toad will winter there. We also have a wheely bin for garden waste which the council takes away every other week for composting.

    April’s last blog post..How to Treat Brittle Nails

    Reply
  2. 2

    Bessie Johns says

    November 30, 2007 at 11:26 am

    What a great idea to use your fall leaves for mulch! I have never thought about doing this, but will certainly be doing so from now on. Thanks for the tip.

    Reply
  3. 3

    Heidrun Karin Peters says

    December 2, 2007 at 2:52 pm

    Great post GreenTalk! I have submitted it to EcoBlogs – Social Bookmarking for the Environment – see here: http://ecoblogs.net/index.php
    I have a similar post in my blog: http://greenpowermall.blogspot.....composting
    We love our compost and use it each spring to fertilize our garden soil. I do use (shreddered) paper, though. What are your reasons not to? I like to see part of our huge amount of paper waste (my husband and I both have “paper-intense” professions) turn into good fertile soil. The rest goes into the public waste paper bins for recycling. You find them anywhere in Germany. We also have those green “wheely bins” that the council comes to take away for composting in Germany.

    Reply
  4. 4

    Green Talk says

    December 3, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    Hi Heidrun-thank you for submitting my article to Ecoblogs.Why do I not use paper? I am afraid of the dioxins that make the paper white and the inks used by printers. Do you think I am being overly cautious?
    Any thoughts? I am going to check out your website as well!

    Reply
  5. 5

    Peter R. Sherman says

    February 20, 2008 at 8:05 am

    Good tip with the leaves. Another helpful thing you can do is using mushroom manure – A mixture of sand and mushroom manure mixed into your garden soil will help to prepare your flowerbeds for planting. Be sure to mix in some fresh topsoil as well, because new topsoil will help to cut down on the amount of salt in the ground. Peter

    Peter R. Sherman’s last blog post..Organinc Gardening Tips Series

    Reply
  6. 6

    Green Talk says

    February 20, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Peter, I would love to find mushroom manure but there is not alot of mushroom farms where I am. The one that grows mushrooms told me they use their own compost. Why used the sand to mix the mushroom compost? Any suggestions where to buy organic mushroom manure besides growing my own? If you want to use it in your veggie garden, how much do you suggest in an established 8 ft 4 ft raised bed?

    If you have your choice between mushroom vs worm compost, which one do you like better?

    I hope you come back to visit often since it will spring time soon and I started posting about my organic garden. I could use some expert advice! Anna

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Living Green Makes Cents | Green Talk™ says:
    November 15, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    […] Send them to your composter so you can have sweet compost for your plants.  Don’t forget to collect free leaves in the fall so that you can have the right mix of brown and green to make compost. Your lawn loves […]

    Reply
  2. 15 Tips to Become A Neighborhood “Greeny” | Green Talk® says:
    January 31, 2012 at 1:10 am

    […] old item for something you would hardly use, consider asking your neighbor if you can borrow it. I collect leaves in the fall to compost. They decompose quicker if I mulch them into smaller pieces. I am going to borrow a mulching lawn […]

    Reply
  3. Coffee Grounds, Garden Friend or Foe? | Green Talk® says:
    April 10, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    […] Cornell’s composting online fact sheet for more information.  Want more brown?  Read how to find and keep more brown around for your compost. And for the green?Keep a handy composting pail in your […]

    Reply
  4. Growing Onions from Onion Sets | Green Talk® says:
    July 29, 2012 at 11:40 pm

    […] By the way, the onions don’t like weed competition.  I used ground up leaves for mulch to keep the weeds at bay.  (You can store leaves in the Fall.) […]

    Reply
  5. Top Green Bloggers Give Their Must Have Eco-Finds for Fall says:
    October 4, 2013 at 9:16 am

    […] on Green Talk does a great job explaining How Can Brown Turn to Green and how you can turn all of those leaves that pile up in the fall into mulch or compost. Not only […]

    Reply

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