Turn your Trash into Treasure

We got a new addition to the Turf Care Centre.  I'll give you a hint...It's 6' x 6' and smells like wet leaves. Yep, you guessed it (or not)...it's a shiny new leaf compost bin.  I found an easy design off the internet and with a little help from my friends installed it in just a day.  Mike C and I cleared and flattened out the area in preparation. Ryan and I put down a subgrade of compost, pounded four 4" x 4" posts into the ground at 6' apart and installed a small retaining wall along the back to eliminate the bank behind it from eroding. I later used chicken wire to house the unit and installed a pathway around the compost bin to discourage weeds from weaving there way in. Our departments Resident Artist, Chris, beautified the project by decorating the back retaining wall with felled birch limbs. Yeah Team!!!

I was shocked at how many loads of leaves we brought in without even visibly filling it up.  I think we fit almost 20 yards in this bin and there is still room. And each time it rains, it compacts even further.  I can't wait to see the results in the Spring and topdress the beds and tree wells with the mulch.

You might be wondering why we would go to the trouble of corraling the properties leaves into this bin. Well, those papery leaves rattling against your doorways and throughout your yard can be a nuisance, but they are  also incredibly valuable.  Leaves help build up the structure of the soil, aerate clay soils, and provide an immense amount of nutrients back to the earth, for free even.  A healthy substrate layer is quite a complex system of minerals, water and live and dead insects. Unfortunately, this system can become quite anemic with improper stewardship.  If beds are to be raked repeatedly clean of leaves and natural debris, and replaced with nothing in return, then your soil will have very little in the way of nutrients to provide back to the plants.  Quite simply, leaves fall from the trees to feed the soil. Why not take advantage of this gift?  I understand that leaves in garden beds can be perceived as unsightly.  In this case, leaves can be raked up and used in a leaf compost bin, like ours, to be re-applied back to the beds in 6 months time when they have decayed to a humus rich material.  Any mulch is valuable to a garden bed, but leaf mulch is King. After doing a little research, I found out that leaves, pound for pound, contain twice as many nutrients as manure. That's quite the power-packed meal.