Yesterday R. and I drove to an inner suburb where there are plenty of oak trees and raked up 6 huge bags of leaves. In the afternoon I fed them all through the mulcher and tipped them into the compost heap, mixed with blood and bone. Whilst raking leaves I unearthed a set of keys with name tag attached. Last night I was able to track down the owner (their house had been burgled some weeks ago and the keys stolen) and delivered them today on our way out to buy son a birthday present. On the way back we decided that we'd had so much 'fun' yesterday that we might as well do it all again. So we stopped at the same place and raked up another six bags (we had come prepared with bags, rakes, etc.) They have now been shredded, together with the prunings from the apple and cherry trees, and joined those in the compost heap. I think that will be enough for a while. The problem with turning leaves into compost is that it's difficult to get the water through them. However, perserverance pays and they make lovely compost.
We've had some quite decent frosts lately (minus 4) with warm sunny days to follow. It's amazing how plants can have their leaves frozen night after night and still survive.
oh, I do the same thing ~ drive and find lots of autumn leaves and rake them up, take them home and use as mulch. they are superb for mulch.
ReplyDeletei have been reading your canberra weather posts and then this. as i was reading i was thinking 'oh is it my keys she has found' but alas no. lucky you having a mulcher for those leaves, we leave them to decompose and it takes at least 12 months.
ReplyDelete