Mulch tips

i leave my leaves down as a mulch even pushing them up round semmie pressious plants

Thaks NP, I did read this on a blog about leaves a while ago, there is always some debate about leaves but they are natures gift.

Make up pens with 4 pallets wired together, twice each corner. Line the inside with polythene (thick), put in 4inch layers of grass cuttings, leaves etc. then 4 ins. stable bedding. continue with the same until full.
Tread down and water in, cover with polythene. If you can aquire some very old plaster mortar rubble (no paint) put a shovel full over each layer.
You can chop up leaves with a large lawn mower.
Turn after 6 weeks in to
another pen, leave uncovered,repeat again 4weeks later.
Will be ready by Easter.

well natures bean doing plants for hundreds of millions of years we have only bean here in our form for about 1 and a half million and look what we do as a species.it depends how tidy you want it realy i guess.if you want tidy look above.in my back garden it cant be natural because dog wee and leaves dont smell good trust me on that one.in the front its realy overcrowded and natural .you can dig the leaves in in the spring as a natural food and have a tidy garden in the summer and protect your plants for free in weather like now.balls in your court realy.i hope ive helped take care bye for now

i think it may have been my blog on mulching with leaves that you read Ams. and although i do agree with NP that it is natures way of replenishing the soil and protecting plants, it is also natures way of protecting some of the undesirables, as i found out lol. i did remove all the leaves i put on my cottage bed a few weeks ago, and replaced them with organic mulch that i bought from B&Q, which i think is part composted bark. And when i removed the leaves although quite a lot were already half taken into the soil by the worms, i left these and mulched over the top, there were also loads of snails and slugs and loads of there eggs! not to mention on a windy dry day they blew all around the garden. It was worth a try, but i think what my experiement has told me is it is best to remove them and allow them to rot down before you use them as mulch. what we do have to remeber in the wild you would not see the vareity of plants planted in such close proximity as we have in our gardens. it is different. I have got some of my own compost on the go, and some leaf mould, which i woul say are the two best things to use for mulch. but mine was not ready in time for use this year, but i think once you get them going, your garden will become self surficent for mulch.....well i hope, this stuff is not cheep in B & Q lol. hope this helps...

i do bye plants that dont seam to suffer from snail damage or any other.try and work with mother nature and my nile puffer loves snails.after all if they were so bad wouldnt we be living in a dessert of snails with know plants.im sure thats called balance.everything belongs.a little less latin names and a little bit of commen sense can go a long way.im not trying to step on peoples toes and i dont want to offend.im sure theres a sight to offend lol.i just shoot from the hip cant help it.some people cant handle the truthe though it can hurt.right ill stop running on take care bye for now

lol, lucky i'm not easy to offend NP, and ofcourse you have a good point, everything has a place, but as the supior animal on the planet we do have the option and ability to manipulate certain things, but still working with mother nature, - after all is'nt that what gardening is all about? ofcourse if you want to exclude the plants that snails like, and don't mind a slimy mess and bald patches after they have blown all over your lawn, i am sure leaf mulching is an excellent option. personally i like Hosta, and pansy and a whole load of other plants that they do like, and i like my grass, in which case it is best to manipulate things a bit. and remove the leaves, let them rot down and then aply - the end result to the soil is just the same, minus the attraction to slugs and snails. still working with mother nature, just giving a helping hand to the things you want to protect. I do like to test things out and experiement a bit, hense the leaf mulching project, but i have to say the results of this were not as good as expected, just my advice and my experience. - oh and BTW NP not good with latin names anyway - find it hard enough to spell english! lol

Excellent advice Doctorbob, Noseypotter and Majeekahead, thank you very much. Unconventionally I have a small back garden and a large front garden so I have always steered away from a decent composing system using leaves. I have a large plastic compost bin which I build for 6 months and leave for 6 months. I have challenged myself to be a champion of composting in my front garden and hopefully promote the idea to the neighbourhood, it will look unsightly but hey...I want to work with nature and getting to the age where I don’t care what people think of me.

good for you Ams, i have 2 of these bins, they are quite effecive, if you have 2 you have one for filling and one for brewing! just a thought, that way not so long to wait! also at the moment, i have got my leaves in black bin liners, apprently this is a good way of turning them to mulch and you don't need much space to do it, you can just stick them behind the shed, they do take a while like this but don't need a big compost heap. however, i think i am going to upgrade my system in the spring to what Dr.B has saggested, i do have enough room to do it and would be easier to turn, and therefore quicker results. i find this the biggest problem with the plastic bins. but in your situation you have to work with what you have don't you. my bins have worked well over the last year, i got some lovely compost from them in the summer, far better for your garden than anything you can buy.

I agree about home made compost, when ready to dig in I love to run my hands through it like gold dust.

It's a very satisfing experience Ams is'nt it, and i also love the smell! - bit wierd aye! lol

i was only giving my angle on plant life etc i agree with all these answers realy and i was messing not offending sorry if u see it that way

not at all NP, everyone is intitled to there opinion, believe me you would know if i was offended, like yourself i say it as it is lol - and the points you have made are very good ones, we had this chat before did'nt we on the blog i wrote. i do like to work with nature, and i like to test the boundries, the general advice you are given for this is to remove them and allow them to rot down before using as mulch, it is all about experiementing is'nt it what works for once gardener does'nt for another, we all have our own way of doing things, there is no right and wronges really, just different experiences and opinons. I did try leaf mulching and found it did'nt work for me, and suite what i want to grow and the way i like to garden. but that does'nt make me right and you wrong... my nan used to swear by leaf mulching, but she mainly grew roses, so like yourself snails not a problem.

apserlootly i kind of said that no disrespect

NP i have not taken anything you said as disrespectful or offensive, but when you keep adding comments such as 'no disrespect' or 'no offense intended' 'some can't handle the truth' etc...it kind of reads as if i should be lol - there really is no need to be walking on egg shells we are all freinds here, well i think so, and i have no problem with someone that has a different opinion to me and not affraid to say so. - we both like to speak out minds, agree or disagree. - surely we are not going to disagree about agreeing? lol

no im just trying to be nice and respectfull lol

well thats ok then :o)

cool x