We cut down most of the garden and put a nice thick layer of leaves on top. This is part of our lasagna gardening, or permaculture technique. I'm not exactly sure if the two are one in the same or distinct practices. Chris did the research on gardening techniques. I planned the space.
Anyway, there are a lot of people throwing out their leaves! It seems like such a trajedy to us because those leaves contain valuable nutrients that the trees have mined from deep under the ground for us. Why throw that away? Okay, perhaps in some municipalities the "yard waste" is collected and composted for the community to use later. But why not compost it ourselves? I have space. Then there is no need to use fossil fuels to transport the leaves back and forth.
"Yard waste" is such a sad term, too. If you call it waste, then you are destined to throw it away. It should be called something else. Call it mulch. That's a perfect name for what you would typically consider yard waste.
If you kept all your grass clippings in a compost box all summer long, and then threw that on top of your garden at the end of the growing season you would do so much better than bagging and throwing away. This is especially true if you do not use pesticides on your grass. If you're big into pesticides, then maybe it's not such a great idea. But when it comes to leaves dropped by your trees you could put that on your garden in the fall, and by spring they would have broken down enough to become part of your growing medium. I bet you don't spray pesticides on your trees unless you're a citrus farmer. So, why does everybody throw this valuable resource away? It would actually be easier in many cases to rake your leaves onto your garden beds instead of clumsily fumbling with big old bags.
This is something worth considering now if you haven't bagged your leaves already. If you have, and they're gone already, then next year think about being a bit lazier and not bagging them all up! You'll save time and money, your garden will thank you, and it will also help save the world by saving on bags and gas!
Anyway, there are a lot of people throwing out their leaves! It seems like such a trajedy to us because those leaves contain valuable nutrients that the trees have mined from deep under the ground for us. Why throw that away? Okay, perhaps in some municipalities the "yard waste" is collected and composted for the community to use later. But why not compost it ourselves? I have space. Then there is no need to use fossil fuels to transport the leaves back and forth.
"Yard waste" is such a sad term, too. If you call it waste, then you are destined to throw it away. It should be called something else. Call it mulch. That's a perfect name for what you would typically consider yard waste.
If you kept all your grass clippings in a compost box all summer long, and then threw that on top of your garden at the end of the growing season you would do so much better than bagging and throwing away. This is especially true if you do not use pesticides on your grass. If you're big into pesticides, then maybe it's not such a great idea. But when it comes to leaves dropped by your trees you could put that on your garden in the fall, and by spring they would have broken down enough to become part of your growing medium. I bet you don't spray pesticides on your trees unless you're a citrus farmer. So, why does everybody throw this valuable resource away? It would actually be easier in many cases to rake your leaves onto your garden beds instead of clumsily fumbling with big old bags.
This is something worth considering now if you haven't bagged your leaves already. If you have, and they're gone already, then next year think about being a bit lazier and not bagging them all up! You'll save time and money, your garden will thank you, and it will also help save the world by saving on bags and gas!
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