[rachelsco]

ive been down the bottom of the garden today and found 5 black bin liners full of last years leaves that i forgot id got.  what i wondered was, is it too late too dig them into the plot for things that are being sown this year? they havent really rotted down at all. they are deciduous leaves and would be going into a potatoe area with some well rotted horse muck.

any advice appreciated, thanks

[Yorkie]

No, I'd leave them for another year or more until they've rotted down properly.

Leaves take far longer to decompose than regular compost, and will take nitrogen from the soil if left to decompose in contact with it.

[rachelsco]

thanks yorkie, shall i just leave them in the black plastic bags then?

[solway cropper]

thanks yorkie, shall i just leave them in the black plastic bags then?

You could always build a leaf mould cage out of four posts wrapped around with chicken wire

This is what I've been digging out of one of my cages today and it makes a great potting compost.

[Yorkie]

As they're in the black bags I'd leave them there.  Just make sure the leaves aren't dry - give them a bit of a water from the hosepipe if they are, and that the bags have got air holes in them (stab them a few times with a fork).

Some deciduous leaves can take 2-3 years to rot down (in fact, I'm not even going to bother with the masses of horse chestnut leaves I get on my lawn.  They are waxy and therefore won't rot at all easily - plus they've got a leaf spot which I don't want to spread around).

[sion01]

A friend of mine has a special wire cage where he mixes last autmns leaves with this years grass clippings.The moisture from the grass and the heat it generates helps brake down the leaves quicher then they would alone and the compost that results is a bit richer then leafmould too.Particularly handy if youve got a lot of grass clippings that would just turn in to wet smelly compost by itself

[rachelsco]

thanks all for your comments, im glad i asked as i would probably have dug in them in, but now i wont.  probably just stab the bags and wet them abit, and leave them and see what happens......

[Yorkie]

Open the bags, water the leaves, re-tie and then stab them (so to speak).

The leaves need to be moist (not soaking) and you won't get enough water in to the bags through the stab holes.