[carlrmj]

   Today I started collecting leaves from the village green for the leafmold heap .
   While I was out two people asked if I would mind taking the leaves from their gardens also.
   It was a lovely sunny day compared to yesterday and managed to collect five 1/2 ton builders bags
  of leaves .
  Hopefully if the weather is ok tomorrow I'll get some more ,last year it took three and a half weeks to collect most of the
 leaves from the green .

[ilan]

Well done it worth the effort I think a lot of people overlook this valuable rescource I used to sweep up the leaves in the street just to add to the heap 

[3759allen]

definitely worth doing, especially as it's free. plenty of people would be grateful of having their lawns cleared, i put an add on gumtree.

all i would say is that it's a good idea to lay the leaves out and run a lawn mower over them, then collect using the grass box. makes them break down a lot quicker and easy to do.

[gavinjconway]

I got about 10 bags last year from the council as they were hoovering them up.. added them all to the compost heap and still have some left in bags. they are good as bulk but dont have many nutrients lift in them.

[Trillium]

True, Gavin, but they add lovely tilth to soils.

[gavinjconway]

Oh yes - they are perfect for adding humus and get the soil nice and friable.. (I wasn't at all meaning it's no good...)

[solway cropper]

When making leaf mould keep in mind that it reduces down in bulk quite dramatically. Starting with 5 bags full of loose leaves you'll be lucky to end up with about half a bag of usable material. Still, it really is great fun collecting  them all and it does make a useful addition to potting mixes. It's a shame more people can't be bothered to do it and reduce our reliance on peat.

[mumofstig]

I know it goes against the usual advice, but I'm putting them straight on the beds on the plot, with some netting to stop them blowing away. It's surprising how quickly the worms etc are dragging them all into the soil.

I wonder where/when the advice is to let them rot in heaps started 

[DD.]

Autumnwatch last night had a feature on worms and showed them dragging leaves into their holes, consuming them and then errrrr - processing them into soil.

[carlrmj]

I'm going to do the same as mum and put them on the raised beds ,and see what happens over winter .
Last years leaves are spread over the rest of the plot,which is heavy clay,so I'm hoping it will help improve it,as it is realy heavy in the winter and rock hard in the summer.
I must have collected over 60 bags last year.

[Trillium]

I rarely compost mine as such. I always dump them out on the ground, (hopefully the leaves are dry) run the mower over them to shred them up, then spread them out for the worms to do their thing. Tilth happens much faster this way and there is no chance that they will lump up as I have had in the past with full wet leaves.

I now have masses of my own acer leaves so we run the mower with the bagger attachment over the lawns and it chews up the leaves beautifully. When the bag is full we just dump it where needed.

[3759allen]

I know it goes against the usual advice, but I'm putting them straight on the beds on the plot, with some netting to stop them blowing away. It's surprising how quickly the worms etc are dragging them all into the soil.

I wonder where/when the advice is to let them rot in heaps started 

i can only assume the rotting in heap method means you can use the finished item as an addition to compost as well as adding to soil/ beds.

i will be using my leave mulch in the compost for my tomatoes, peppers, cucmbers etc.

[Ema]

I used the ones I collected last year in my potato beds in spring the soils greatly improved now.

I will be collecting everything I can and putting it under cardboard to rot down over winter.

[Totty]

I heap it for one year. When it's time to collect more, last years gets spread about. It's usually 80% broken down by then.
Luckily I can collect masses of them with a ride on mower so they are already shredded and break down quicker.

Totty

[Anton]

Ema can you elaborate upon your "I will be collecting everything I can and putting it under cardboard to rot down over winter" please?

Anton