Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: davethespread on October 11, 2009, 17:52

Title: oak leaves
Post by: davethespread on October 11, 2009, 17:52

hi again,can oak leaves be rotted down to use in my plot.i was going to round them up and put them in a debris netting enclosure with some soil, and maybe manure to dig in next autumn,does this sound right? :unsure:

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Aunt Sally on October 11, 2009, 18:02

That's good Dave.  Four stakes in the corners and netting around them.  Fill with leaves and keep topping them up as the level goes down.  Should give you some nice soil conditioner in about a year's time :D

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: davethespread on October 11, 2009, 18:10

thanks aunty :)

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Aunt Sally on October 11, 2009, 18:27

Don't use hores chesnut leaves though, they take AAAGES to rot down.  Burn them and use the ash.

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Spana on October 11, 2009, 18:27

I think oak leaves take a bit longer.  I use mine after two years but by then its the most wonderful stuff. After one year you can still see leaf shapes.

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Aunt Sally on October 11, 2009, 18:28

Yes, the longer you can leave them the better.

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: tode on October 11, 2009, 18:42

I try to collect as much as I can with the mower, using a pretty low cut. That I get quite a bit of grass with em, which I find helps them to break down faster  (wet green grass is best, but this year it's more like short hay  :(  )

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Aunt Sally on October 11, 2009, 18:43

It also chops the leaves up too tode.  Good idea !

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: tode on October 11, 2009, 18:47

Bit off subject, maybe, but this year I've tried throwing all the (veg) rubbish on the lawn just before I mow.  Works quite well.    :happy:

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: davethespread on October 11, 2009, 18:58

its good to ramble tode :D

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: peapod on October 11, 2009, 19:30

Quote from: davethespread on October 11, 2009, 18:58

its good to ramble tode :D

Hes an expert  ;) Kidding Tode!

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: pushrod on October 11, 2009, 19:40

In Tode mode  ;) I always pick up the privot hedge cuttings on the street with the lawn mower. Made the neighbours laugh to see me mowing the pavement but it is quick, it works and it really makes them rot down quicker  8)

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: tode on October 11, 2009, 19:43

Ah,  that must be why the neighbours laugh when they see me gardening . . .  :nowink:

Mr Rambles

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Yabba on October 11, 2009, 20:16

No, it's the bunny slippers and pink nightgown that makes them giggle :|

¥

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Stablechooks on October 11, 2009, 21:45

Go for a really big pile of leaves, it will soon compress down and rot. A few grass cuttings would be fine but generally keep the leaves together. I had loads last year and am now top dressing all my beds with a 6" layer of leaf mould for the worms to pull in.

Back breaking but worth it.

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: tode on October 11, 2009, 21:51

When in Rome  . . . .     :D

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: Trillium on October 11, 2009, 23:07

I get oak leaves drifting in from down the street mixing in with my acer leaves. I can't be bothered waiting for them to compost down so I pour a layer over my veg beds and rotovate them in. The blades chop them up nicely and I follow with a thick layer of manure rotovated in, which hurries the composting process in-ground. by spring its lovely stuff and full of worms - until I rotovate again. C'est la vie.

Title: Re: oak leaves
Post by: davethespread on October 12, 2009, 06:48

i have two long pieces of debris netting joined together underneath the tree catching most of them ;)