Composting Leaves for Your Garden

Composting leaves is a great way to make use of autumn fall leaves while creating rich dark compost for your garden at the same time. It's a much better way to use up those leaves than sending them to the landfill! With fall clean up just around the corner let's take a look at some great ways to compost those leaves.

Composting leaves can be as simple as making a pile of them in an unused corner of your yard and letting them rot. Not the most efficient way, but it will work. If you want to speed up the process a little you can cover the pile with black plastic, that will keep them from blowing around as well.

Another no-effort way to compost your leaves is to bag them in black plastic lawn bags. If you have an out of the way place for them to sit in that gets some sun that will speed up the process. Again, not the most efficient way to compost but it works just fine, especially when you don't have time or space to do anything else with them.

I specify black plastic garbage bags because they heat up and retain the heat much better than clear, white, or orange bags do.

Of course if you have an ongoing compost pile or are building a new one, incorporate the leaves into it. They will decompose and add richness to your green waste. If you have a shredder, shred the leaves up and then add them to your pile or black plastic garbage bags to speed up the process. The smaller material added to your pile is, the faster it will break down.

Another idea for composting leaves is to pile them directly into your garden beds. I have raised beds that I pile high with leaves every fall, make sure they are damp, and cover with black plastic to let them cook all winter. In the spring I remove the plastic and dig the leaf layer into the existing soil.

About this Author

Do you know that compost is the easiest and best thing you can do for your garden? I'm an avid gardener devoted to building the world's best compost and keeping chemicals out of my personal food chain. If you'd like to know more about creating your own best compost and take another step toward living without pesticides in your food stop by BESTCOMPOST.INFO [http://BESTCOMPOST.INFO] for more ideas on building the world's best compost for your own garden.

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