[boosmummy]

Im watching gardeners world and monty has used some leaf mould instead of 'compost', how is leaf mould achieved?

[stentman]

Its achieved naturally by mother nature in woodland hollows over a long time but you can help her along. When Autumn comes and the leaves fall collect as many leaves as practical and fill a standard black plastic refuse sack with them, fork some holes in it and leave it a couple of years. When you open the sack, if conditions were right, you may have crumbly black leaf mould ready for use. You can also keep larger amounts of them in wire mesh boxes around 1 meter cube these will also rot down and become useful for allotmenting next year or the one after. Leaf mould is a patience game.

[sunshineband]

We collect up autumn leaves and keep them packed in a dalek bin all year, watering them from time to time.

Great stuff a year later all for free and hardly any effort 

[JayG]

Good advice!

(Although I'm not 100% against MD, I'm starting to get the feeling from his Gardener's World contributions so far I that he orders his leaf mould from Harrods!) 

[compostqueen]

I'm sure he doesn't and will make it himself

I make it but it does take ages but is worth it as it's no effort other than collecting the leaves up, or if they come to you it's a doddle    I made a leaf bin from posts and chicken wire but black bags with holes punched in are fine if you can stash them in an out of the way place.  I used to add a trowel full of soil to start them off

The leaves slump down very quickly so you end up with a fraction of what you started with.  I use mine when I'm top dressing my raised beds prior to making fresh sowings of carrots or spring onions.

[boosmummy]

thanks for all your advice im definately going to give this a go this year, and will try making a  leaf bin, one question does it not get really smelly? and does it need to be in a certain place ie, shaded etc...?

[snowdrops]

No, it doesn't get smelly & any place that's out of the way as it needs to be there along time

[Living in Hope]

I grew up by a water mill and there was a grill to catch the leaves before the water went over the wheel. The men at the mill raked the leaves out and tipped them onto a pile which produced fantastic leaf mould. It seemed to turn into leaf mound quite quickly and I wonder if it was because it was kept damp by the new leaves being tipped on every few days (of course, given it was 40 years ago I may have forgotten how long it took).

[boosmummy]

So I'm doing a bit of planning today and I'm looking at this leaf bin, now bareing in mind what has been said about needing a lot of leaves for not much product I'm wondering about what size of a bin to build? I'm thinking 2ft square and about 3 ft high but building 2 next to each other one for this year one for next and rotation, is this a good idea? Also do I not need to cover this bin in the summer months to keep it dark? X

[compostqueen]

I have a double bin with each chamber side by side. They can be put to the edge of the garden out of the way.  Mine is by a hedge but is not shady and air can circulate around it. You leave the top exposed to the rain can get to the leaves. I turn mine occasionally. When the leaves had slumped and are well on their way to rotting and are beginning to break down you can put them into bags at this point if you wish to finish them off. That is if you need to add a load more fresh leaves

[TerryB]

If you run your lawn mower over them first this reduces the time it takes for them to break down.