Fallen foliage: harvest or harvest?
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FOLDING IN AUTUMN - TIPS FOR APPLICATION AND USE FROM GARDENERS
"BLANKET" FROM NATURE
I burn the leaves of apple trees, pears, cherries and plums in a metal barrel. They have a lot of diseases that can move, including to the garden. Ash, which, by the way, is a lot, I collect and use to compile soil for seedlings. And with the leaves of ornamental plants that grow on the site (hawthorn, jasmine, bird cherry), I cover perennial vegetables (asparagus, rhubarb) and winter plantings (onions, garlic, herbs).
Olga YAKOVENKO
LAND MULCH
Every year I collect birch foliage at the edge of the nearest forest. In the spring, I mulch sprouted onions and garlic with it. To prevent the foliage from scattering, I press it with small twigs in the aisles and around the perimeter. Such mulch perfectly suppresses the growth of weeds, retains moisture, and by autumn it completely turns into compost. There are always many earthworms under it.
Ludmila UZDENEVA
I USE DANGER LEAVES IN TWO STEPS
Brought from the forest with semi-rotten foliage, I mulch tree trunks, the soil under shrubs and grapes. I do this in late autumn. And in the spring, I transfer all this mulch almost in the form of compost to the beds with carrots, onions, garlic and herbs. I scatter it on the ground, and while loosening the row-spacing, I gradually embed it in the soil. This not only serves as plant food, but also makes the soil looser.
Valentina ZINOVIEVA
We also recommend reading: Tree foliage in autumn - we remove and apply
DRIED LEAVES
I collect the fallen leaves in large plastic bags (you can use sugar). I store them under a canopy on wooden pallets. So they are less caked, freeze well in winter. In the spring, I put the foliage dried and disinfected by the cold in the compost. I noticed that after such an initial treatment, the leaves decompose very quickly (literally in 3-4 months).
Oksana ZAYARNYUK, city of Cherkasy
SOIL RELAX
In the fall, after fertilizing and deep plowing, I mulch the garden with foliage of deciduous trees (except for oak and willow). Weeds do not grow under such a cover, the soil remains moist and loose. In the spring, I immediately cut grooves and sow seeds (additional loosening of the site is not needed).
Irina MELNIKOVA, Mogilev
LEAF PERINA WOODS
I do not remove foliage from the garden in the fall. In the spring I rake it into a heap, enclose it with slate sheets and get a high bed (with an area of 3-4 square meters and a height of 40 cm). I spill it with a solution of urea (30 g per 10 l of water), then sprinkle it with a layer of soil (20-25 cm), pour it with warm water and cover it with a film. After a week, I plant seedlings of pumpkins or zucchini. During the season I harvest, and in the fall I get excellent compost, which I put in for the final digging of the site. Every year I make such a bed on a new site, and in the place of the previous one I grow cabbage or other crops that are demanding on the nutritional value of the soil.
Raisa MANUKYAN, Bryansk
WORD TO THE SPECIALIST
It is still better to remove leaves fallen from garden trees in autumn. It is a fertile breeding ground for pathogenic fungi, bacteria and pests. It's another matter if you have a well-groomed garden, which you spray in a timely manner, and are confident in the absence of diseases. Before putting diseased leaves in compost, it is advisable to spill them with a 5% urea solution to combat fruit rot and scab. Such compost can be used no earlier than 2 years later. During this time, all possible pathogens will die. Another option for using fallen leaves is to bury them deeply.
For the winter, you can cover flowers with dry fallen leaves. In early spring, the shelter must be removed. It is better to mulch the beds with birch and poplar leaves. But first (so that insects do not climb into them for the winter), the foliage should be sprayed with any available insecticide, for example, Fitoverm.
Svetlana KRIVENKOVA, agronomist
HOW TO USE LEAVES - TIPS AND FEEDBACKS FROM GARDENERS
HOW TO PROPERLY PREPARE SHEET MUSHROOM
Those summer residents who collect and burn leaves do the wrong thing. This is absolutely impossible to do. From leaf litter, excellent humus is obtained, which seriously improves soil fertility. It cooks quickly and contains a lot of nutrients.
It is necessary to lay leaf humus in the fall so that in the spring it can be used in the beds.
Leaf litter must be collected in heaps, spilled with EM-preparations, add a little grass cuttings so that the mixture decomposes better. Leaves spilled with EM-preparations rot much faster.
For full readiness, leaf humus takes from 6 months to 2 years. It all depends on the volume and density of the foliage, wood species. But such humus is indispensable for seedlings and indoor flowers.
If you don't have enough foliage in your garden, you can collect it in the forest. For this, the foliage of birch, oak, viburnum, hawthorn and mountain ash is suitable. Even spruce needles will do, but they take a little longer to decompose.
Ash, beech, birch, cherry, elm, oak, poplar and willow leaves decompose quickly (they are used without grinding) and contain large amounts of nitrogen and potassium.
The leaves of berry bushes, hawthorn, maple, chestnut decompose slowly (they must be crushed) and contain very little nitrogen and potassium.
Small portions of humus can be made directly in cellophane bags by making holes in them for air and moisture.
Sometimes they arrange stationary boxes with holes in the walls (maybe made of bricks). Or, having buried 4 pillars, they pull a mesh-netting over them and fold the leaves, grass, earth, spill it with EM preparations and quickly get humus, which can already be used in the spring.
Leaf litter has a number of beneficial properties. Earthworms appear in large numbers on the site, it is well suited as mulch for vegetables, when using it, moisture is better retained.
FALLEN LEAVES: WE FIND USE!
In autumn, many fallen leaves accumulate in the garden. And summer residents face the traditional question: what to do with them?
IN CONTAINERS AND BAGS
I rake the leaves into heaps and then transfer them to containers that turn the leaves into compost. When all containers are occupied, dense plastic bags help out. The litter in them gradually settles, compacts and after a while turns into loose leaf humus, which improves the structure of the soil and is suitable for mulching beds.
WE FERTILIZE THE PLANTING PIT
In October, I prepare planting pits for trees for spring, filling them with collected foliage. I tamp it down, and then pour in part of the excavated earth mixed with sand and peat.
LEAVING "AS IN NATURE"
Supporters of organic farming call for leaving leaves on the ground. Several times I did that. By spring, the litter turned into a nasty sticky mass that slipped underfoot. Under this cover, ugly bald spots appear on the lawn, tender shoots rot, and the heating of the soil is inhibited.
Another important point: pests and spores of fungal diseases feel comfortable in fallen leaves.
In addition, the wind easily spreads uncollected leaves around the site, which clog grates and gutters, end up in arbors and under garden furniture.
TOOLS FOR CLEANING
I clean the lawn with a fan rake (they do not pull out ground cover plants). I also use a garden vacuum cleaner: it perfectly collects and grinds foliage, blows dry leaves and thin twigs even from the most inaccessible places with a strong stream of air. I will share a trick: dry leaves collected in heaps can be easily transferred to a wheelbarrow, if you take a plank in each hand - it is convenient to grab an armful with them (and at the same time the leaves do not fall to the ground).
IN THE FIRE
Many summer residents prefer to burn leaves - this is a quick way to dispose of waste and replenish ash (it is poorer than wood, but it also has potassium). The main disadvantage is the smoke that covers everything around. Do not forget about the fire hazard, especially in strong winds.
© Author: Maria ANASHINA, Moscow region, podmoskovje.com
We also recommend reading: Fallen leaves on the site - burn or not burn
HOW TO USE DANGER LEAVES - VIDEO
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