This simple method will speed up the decomposition of your leaf piles or *any pile. Add a core of grass clippings to provide nitrogen and heat things up a bit. Making leaf mold or leaf compost is cold composting process. The addition of grass, 1x time when building the pile, speeds up the process.
*If it is an old pile of browns, remove about 1/2 of the material and drop in the green core and cover it.
A 15 Minute Compost Bin Build for Endless Garden Leaf Mold & Compost: Build it Now, Celebrate Later! https://youtu.be/jzbSQKEFEj0
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Bentley Seed Company https://bentleyseeds.com
HoseLink Retractable Hose Reels & other garden care products.
Promotions will vary and I don't have a code. https://glnk.io/9wqr/therustedgarden
Metal Raised Beds
Check out all the metal bed design & colors (dozens) at Vegega. Here is my affiliate link: https://www.vegega.com/?ref=le64f3gm30
There is often free shipping and discounts.
I have a discount code that is always 10% off, use the code TRG. However, it does NOT stack when current sales are active and equal to or above 10% on the site.
1st
Good tips. Thanks Gary.
Gary, I live in So Maryland…. is it too late for me to plant garlic? If not what type would you recommend for my zone (same as yours) Thanks in advance!!
Do you water this or just let rain fall on it?
Thank you Gary! I made my first leaf compost bin out of extra wood pallets that we had and filled it full of leaves! Now I’m going to have to build another bin so that I can make it with the grass in the middle or wait until the first pile collapses but there are soooo many leaves and I want to use them all! 😂
I say that one can never have too much compost! So off to make the second bin!
What about raking the leaves into big black trash bags and leaving them to break down?
Works like a charm. Heats up in just a few hours. In 48 hours mine was 148f. Awesome.
I have 0 grass to add to my compost bins as I live in a mostly wooded area and no grass to cut and collect, and no neighbors to collect it from. However, we do have a lot of vegetable waste and a lot of coffee grounds I add to the leaves and it has been fantastic.
The pine won't break down for years.
What about spiking the pile with Alfalfa chips if you don't have grass??
How about using bloodmeal? I have no grass clippings..
Do you cover this and keep rain and snow out?
I use my mower with a bag to mulch up the leaves and the benefit is that grass is cut along with the leaves so it's premixed. Handy!
Thanks for sharing! Tis the season to build a compost pile. 😁
Gary if you don’t have a lot of green would bloodmeal help?
Made a huge pile of leaf mold last year to only have it invaded by jumping worms (I'm in zone 5A). The worms die off in the winter but the cocoons survive. If you use and keep the leaf mold in your own garden, I guess it's no big deal. I used my uninfected leaf mold last year over peat as a seed starter and a major component in my potting mixes. I can't use the infected leaf mold because I give a way and sell seedlings in the spring and do not want to spread the jumping worms.
This year I am constructing a leaf mold bin that will not allow jumping worms access to the leaves (Shredded leaves are the preferred food of the jumping worms).
The cocoons will die off at temperatures above 104F. I did cook about 40 gallons of my finished screened leaf mold in my pellet grill for seed start and am running the rest through hot compost.
There are many areas of the US that have jumping worms, I suggest that people check with their local DNR to find out if jumping worms are in their area.
There are other ways to make leaf mold other than in wire bins. I used a plastic garbage can with holes drilled along the sides with a center PVC pipe with hole and a lid that worked as well as the wire bin. Not near the volume as a bin however.
Enjoy your videos.
Can you just throw food scraps on top such as potato peels, apple peels, banana peels etc.?
I only have a shaded area to build my compost bin, will it work?
It would be cool if you could do a video one day on the anaerobic Korean Bokashi food composting method which I have found to be a great solution to problems created by indoor food waste storage bins attracting bugs and making a mess
(before the food goes out to the compost pile). This anaerobic method of compressing food wastes into a a 5 gal. bucket with a special lid that squeezes out the air and speeds up decomposition with used hops grains, enables you to completely skip the step of adding your food wastes to your outdoor compost pile and instead after you've filled a bucket with food and grains and waited two weeks to let it sit covered in the bucket, you can add it to your garden . (I keep a bucket I'm filling in the garage, although there is little smell and no bugs or worms.) In two more weeks, you can plant directly in and around where you added the Bokashi mixture in the garden. The Koreans and Japanese have evidently been doing this for hundreds of years.
Nice!! I am already doing that after watching my father. But, i also have a stand alone rolling composter mainly because of critters.
Do you add food to this mix or do you have a separate container for that.
Enjoy all your videos!
Sounds awesome Gary I'm definitely going to keep that in mind
nice video, and I really like that sweater too
Thanks so much. Now have so many leaves here in VA.
Do you know if cedar tree leaves change the pH of the compost pile. I had a lot fall off of the cedar tree during the hurricane. Thanks
I don't have grass, I have an old farm yard, mostly weeds. Will weeds seeds sprout if I use the weeds?
Thanks so much for this quick direct info Gary! And videos always start up lots of comments that are also so helpful from the Gardening community! Thanks!
When you bake some home-made BREAD you have to mix a batch of yeast and add. BUT if you mix a batch of the same yeast up and pour it on top of your compost pile it's just like adding a turbocharger to you car — a lot more horsepower. — just make sure to keep it watered!
can you use freshly mowed down mint for the greens? And will the leaves break down faster if I cover them with a tarp?
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I have a question kindly please answer me…. my house water is salty .. and my plants are getting dead… any help u can give me related to plants… what should I do
I wonder if there could be a draft video on your seed lineup for the next year, like major contenders that you want to plant get picked first… Just a fun video idea. Like purple top turnips are a huge player, I really want to draft those this year. Like an
I really like that method. Quick question,,, I've add wood ash to my other compost pile does this do much for it??