As the leaves begin to fall, many gardeners will be dreading the task of raking them up. But one expert has shared a tip that will make you see them in a whole new light
Oliver Radcliffe GAU Writer
09:05, 15 Oct 2025
Doing this one job in autumn could lead your garden to flourish come 2026(Image: Olga Rolenko via Getty Images)
Autumn frequently proves challenging even for the most passionate gardeners. With chillier air, persistent rainfall, and shorter daylight hours, autumn gardening rarely matches the pleasure of summer months.
One of the most tiresome tasks for many involves discovering your once-immaculate lawn buried beneath a pile of waterlogged, fallen leaves. Hours can be spent raking them together, creating towering heaps, while questioning why so many trees were ever planted initially. It appears to be an endless struggle. However, this needn’t be the case – by recognising the advantages of certain autumn tasks, they become far more motivating, particularly when understanding how beneficial they’ll prove for your plants come spring.
The expert described leaf mould as black gold(Image: Larisa Stefanuyk via Getty Images)
Those mounds of leaves that appear bothersome actually represent one of your garden’s most precious resources. While most people bag them for council collection or cram them into garden waste bins, one gardening expert has emerged to emphasise composting’s benefits, describing them as gardening “black gold”.
The process is straightforward: utilise your fallen leaves to produce leaf mould, a nutrient-dense, crumbly compost that requires time to develop but will absolutely delight your plants.
Sharing on TikTok, green-fingered specialists from Gardeners World explained: “It’s that time of year when the leaves are going to drop and rather than think of it as a nuisance and raking them up, what you can do is put straight onto your border or into the compost where they can naturally decompose there to create leaf mould, which is a gardener’s black gold for the following year.”
Over the winter, they’ll naturally break down, enriching the soil, feeding the worms, and protecting plant roots from frost.
It saves you spending on mulch, and come spring, you’ll start to see the benefits. The experts also have an option if you prefer something tidier.
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Bag the leaves up and let nature do the work for you. Simply pop the leaves into black bin bags, sprinkle a little water to keep them moist, then tie the tops loosely and pierce a few small holes for airflow.
Store the bags in a shady corner, and then simply forget about them for a while. By spring and summer 2026, if you can wait that long, you’ll open the bags to find a soft, dark, earthy material that smells like the forest floor.
That’s your leaf mould and is some of the best compost you can get around, plus it’s free. So, next time you’re tempted to chuck out the leaves scattered across your lawn, think again.
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