[Michael D]

Hi all,      Is it ok   to  use  leaves   that   have just   come down .     To  stop  weeds   between  my  leeks   over winter,   without    having   to rot  them down  first.   Michael

[tode]

I suppose you could, but it's better to let em rot down first: give you some nice crumbly mold.

I believe that if you put a lot on "raw", they tend to rob the soil of nitrogen.

[Babstreefern]

I've got a tree and some smaller bushes and a maple in my garden, and last year, I inadvertently left a load of leaves lying where they'd fallen - on top of the soil - my excuse was that I wasn't feeling well, with having a bad case of flu - was off work for a week, right before Christmas - and well, to be really truthful, I just couldn't be bothered to shift it.  But now I've got nice soil to work with, whereas before, it was heavy to work with because its a clay type of soil.  By the way, this is in my garden, not at the allotment.  This year, I'm feeling more with it, so I'll be getting my "garden hoover" out, and shovelling up all the leaves - but not today, its really gusting outside.

By the way tode, where in NW France do you live, me and my hubby travel to France every year, camping.  We used to stay for a few days just outside of Calais at a place called Guines, but we've now found another campsite just outside of St Omer at Granspette.  We visit my hubby's uncle's grave from WW1 who is buried in a small place outside of Armentieres

[tode]

Sometimes it's best to just let nature do its thing   

I'll pm you Babs.   

[hillbilly]

I think leaves rot down differently to other organic matter. They rot via fungi rather than nitrogen using bacteria so it's fine to leave them on the soil fresh - especially overwinter.
A problem may be slugs which love to live under them  - but then so do frogs, toads etc so maybe they'll eat the slugs 

[philsmith1967]

I keep them in heavy duty black plastic bags for one year then use them as they have rotted fairly well by then.
I also collect grocery bags of dry leaves when I'm walking the dog and in spring I scatter them on my lawn before I mow.I then put the resulting grass leaf mixture in the compost bin. Needless to say my neighbours think I'm mad

[Christine]

You are but so long as it doesn't harm the lawn who cares.  It will work for you though.

[tode]

That reminds me: I'm going to offer to collect all the neighbour's leaves with my mower (his doesn't collect)       

[Trillium]

I have a lot of mature acer trees around me and I let them pack around all my perennials for the winter. Really saves the plants. Come spring thaw, I rake out the ones that haven't broken down and they go into the compost as I've a little more time then than the fall.
We've also raked up a lot of the dry leaves blocking our driveway and they were dumped onto my veg beds so that I could rotovate them in, which works well when they're dry. They chop into tiny bits and break down quickly in the manure.
In the past when I didn't have mature trees around us, I'd drive into the nearest town and load my car with bagged leaves for the veg beds.

[tode]

Yes, leaves are good for protection, as well.

[hillbilly]

Yes, leaves are good for protection, as well.

How much protection do you need in NW France, tode? Do you get hard frosts? Snow? How cold does it get?
Sorry if that't too many daft questions but I'd love to know 

[tode]

For a few years, we've only had about 2° of frost, but last winter we had a week of 16 below.   Nippy   
I think the coldest we've had was about 20 below.  Wiped out all my lavendar and thyme 
On top of that the power was off for 5 days. 

Don't usually get much snow: just an inch or two, but just enough to bring everything to a standstill   (as in UK    ).  Quite a while back we had a real packet, with a lot of wind, so snow-drifts about 10 foot deep.  Spent a week clearing em, just finished when
it all thawed 

[viettaclark]

A couple of people on my Freecycle site are offering bin bags of leaves!! Brilliant!!!