Super Fast Leaf Composting Trick

We show you our new method to make leaf compost/mould that will give you a jump start on building your garden soil. This method is an easy and fast trick for composting your leaves.

We found that this method is easier than using your lawn mower for several reasons. First, a push mower has a small bag. We can do 3 times as much in the trash can. Second, when you mow leaves, you are sucking up grass and weed seeds by the handfuls. We do not want those in our leaf mulch.

We love that Ryobi string trimmer and have had it for 6 years only having to replace the fuel line.

As always, thanks for visiting and remember you can check us out on our other social media platforms where we post additional homesteading info and cool stuff.

[bayoutown]

We mow over our leaves, then we rake them again, and mow over them again. We do this 3 or 4 times to the same pile until the leaves and grass are so fine, they almost look like instant soil. We use them immediately as soil. It works beautifully! We have 7 acres with 6 acres of forest. Lots and lots of leaves. When you wet the mowed leaves, it honestly looks like instant soil.

[The_Scatterbrained_Idiot]

I use leaf mold/mulch every year. Make the process hands off by perforating barrels with 1/2" holes every 6 inches all the way around the outside of the barrels with a few holes in the bottom. Add your shredded leaves and any other garden clippings, water it once a month or so, keeping it covered. 60-90 days and you have fantastically fungal goodness.

[kerim.peardon]

I laughed so much when you chopped up the leaves with your weedeater. It's like a garden version of an immersion blender.

[MrMyKidd]

After you have thoroughly chopped up this year's leaves, I recommend mixing a few scoops of inoculated leaf mold from last year's batch before putting it into the bag. This should add moisture, and have most of the decomposing constituents already at work within it to further speed up the process.

[boatjr]

I did this and it worked amazing. Put the compost in the garden yesterday

[buffalopatriot]

I'm inspired. I had a tough year last year because our newest garden area is mostly clay. I did put a layer of wood chip mulch the previous fall, and the fungal material that developed was phenomenal, but not quite enough to keep the clay from compacting after numerous rains. This fall and winter I plan to do a lot of leaf amendments.

[pinarellolimoncello]

Great video, love to see people using their brain. In England we have something called the soil association, it is dedicated to improving the quality of soil which like so many issue of today like climate change or the bees and other pollinators are very important that people become aware of and do there bit to help, 10/10 mate. Just a little tip, I was collecting leaves the other day, i used a big plastic gorilla bucket on its side, flick the leaves into it then tip that into wheelbarrow or other vessel, means you can pick up a whole lot more leaves than just with hand and rake and saves a lot more bending down. Keep composting..

[royhoco]

I use a different method for my leaves. I plant winter rye grass in mid Sept. and when the leaves fall I put a metal cover over the discharge chute on my riding mower, then I use a yard sweeper pulled behind the mower while I chop the leaves and mow the grass at the same time, the grass clippings get mixed with the chopped leaves. I dump all the grass and leaves in a big pile around my cement mixer. Then I put some stones in the mixer and load the mixer with leaves and turn it on, this pulverizes the chopped leaves into small pieces and I add this to my garden and flower beds and also mix some with my homemade potting soil. this method is a work saver for me.

[michellewordhollis]

This works so well! Learned by accident using my leaf vacuum which mulched the leaves that I put in a plastic trash bag and left sitting for a while. I am so happy you made this video to share with others. Thank you!

[SS-cfnq]

Wow! So many great ideas here! So much resourcefulness!

I’ve taken out most of my lawn since I live in Colorado and we’re in a drought. Since I don’t have a lot of lawn anymore, I don’t have a need for a high powered mower—I have a rotary push mower.

So what I tried this year was picking up dozens and dozens of bags of leaves from neighbors and then—sitting on them and squishing them in the bags! Don’t laugh! (Okay you can laugh, it is a little funny. I have to do something to justify the 20 pounds I put on during the pandemic!)

Anyway, leaves aren’t super shredded, but they do get more crunched down and I can fit more in my corrals.

Thanks for the great video! And I loved the comments!

[michaelquillen]

Good video. I've been doing this since I saw this video years ago. One thing I've started to do in the past few years is to spread those leaves not so thickly as I used to. Just enough to cover my raised bed 2 inches thick. I do this just after I lightly work-in what is left of any straw mulch that I used in the garden. I also lightly sprinkle fresh grass clipping on top of those leaves. IN the spring, I work that stuff into the soil a few inches. I also go out and get farm/ranch-produced compost (cow manuer and other good stuff) at $45 for 1000 lbs and put that (about an inch thick) on top of everything about a month before I plant. JUst before planting, I work the top few inches again to mix everything. This year, my tomatoes are incredible! Yes, I did use some tomato food for them as well. But the tomatoes are the highlight of my garden which as a whole, is the besst I've ever had (meaning, you build-up the quality of your soil over the years). Thanks for the video!

[ikesteroma]

This is genius.  I so happen to have access to a weed wacker, but not a lawn mower, and this idea never dawned on me until now.  Thanks for the video!!

[georgiagardengirlshomestea]

Thank you for sharing your idea. Seems so many replies want to put you down. That's ashame folks can't or WON'T say thk you and keep their condescending thoughts to their self!!! Good Job!!

[Brockthedog]

Just chop them up and put them directly onto your flower and shrub beds. You don’t have to get the leaves ready any more than that. Put the worms to work immediately. Worm castings are better than leaves so get those worms busy! Thanks for sharing the video.

[alaskansourdoughwormsgarde]

You are correct about worms breaking down leaf mould fast. I raise Euros and African night crawlers in it. I use a Sun Joe to break up my leaves which when they are damp almost become leaf mould. I then add coffee from my local coffee shops, wet it down really good and you can have leaf mould in less than two months. The coffee heats it up whether in a black bag or a plastic tote. Good luck.

[waryr]

We lay dwn a tarp and make small mountains of leaves around the edges of the tarp then run it over w/ a push mower w/ the shoot always facing the tarp :) Then just transfer the leaves from the tarp to the beds, landscaping or compost. We like it 'bout 6-8 in. then in late summer we add a few inches of grass clippings or sprinkle on some blood meal or cottonseed meal then repeat w/ leaves in the fall. When our kids were lil we told them putting the leaves on was "putting the plants blankets on for the winter" lol

[keithsage]

I use my mower, and my much beds are 4 ft wide, 30 inches deep and 50 ft long ..I got lots of this good stuff and lots of clay. I also brought in sand, my garden is fantastic.

[aidenbiden]

I’m pretty new too gardening this year being the first but I’ve always liked the out doors recently I’ve been having a lot of out the box ideas after watching information videos like this around gardening wild fires and so on now one of the thoughts has been around trees needing nutrients just like every other plant and how we clear leaves from lawns and foot paths but don’t mulch them down and give them back to the trees as well as using them to feed out gardens

[stevecharters]

What's the hurry? Judging by the volume of leaves you have, if you start a new corral every year then after about the third year you'll have a fresh corral of leaf mould to spread every year after that. Layering the leaves with garden lime and hosing it down each layer speeds up the process and balances the ph. Also, if you're putting your corrals that close to the trees you need an impermeable base (e.g. black plastic or roofing iron) otherwise the tree roots will infiltrate up into the leaf mould before you're ready to spread it.

[GrowCookPreserveWithKellyDawn]

We use a bagger on the mower and it chops up the leaves nicely. I make leaf mold mixed with my compost, but I also put a 10-12 inch layer of leaves mixed with grass clippings (for nitrogen) on each of my raised beds every fall. It breaks down a little over the winter, but it also acts as mulch for most of the growing season, helping to control weeds and retain soil moisture.