Leaf mold making

The following fall—rough, year-old leaf mold makes an excellent mulch. 

Organic gardening methods can cut your costs. Making compost and leaf mold, for example, can eliminate the need to purchase soil Improvers and fertilizers, and you can save considerable amounts of money on organic produce by growing your own. 

Make compost and leaf mold to feed the soil. 

When leaves drop from trees in the fall, they decay on the ground to form a rich, dark material called leaf mold, which is an excellent soil conditioner. Making leaf mold in your yard is easy to do. All you need is a supply of fallen leaves, and a simple container to stop them from blowing away. Throwing leaves out with the trash, or burning them, is a waste of a valuable resource. 

Any leaves from deciduous trees and shrubs can be gathered up in fall to make leaf mold. Do not use evergreens, such as laurel and holly. Leaves of some species take longer than others to decay, but all rot down eventually. An easy way to collect leaves from a lawn is to run the mower over them. The grass and chopped leaf mixture in the mower bag will rot down easily. (Alternatively, mow without the bag on the mower worms will soon take the chopped leaves down into the lawn.) To supplement supplies, collect leaves from guiet streets or, with permission, from parks and cemeteries. Leaves from busy roadsides can be polluted with oil and vehicle emissions. Some communities collect leaves and produce leaf mold to sell or give to the public. Never collect leaves or leaf mold from woodlands. 

Simple leaf mold containers can be made with netting and posts, or bought. There is no need for a lid or solid sides, nor is size critical—just big enough to hold your supply of leaves. Smaller quantities can be stuffed into plastic bags. Make a few air holes with a garden fork when the bags are full, and tie the top loosely. An even simpler method is to just pile the leaves in a sheltered corner and wait. 

If you regularly make a leaf mold pile (see pp.44-45), you may well have an opossum sleeping in it for at least part of the year. Leave a gap in the chicken wire, or whatever supports your leaf heap, so that small animals can get in and out easily. 

Cool and damp Frogs, toads, salamanders, beetles, and hoverflies may all make use of a cool, dark, probably damp site make a leaf mold pile see pp.44-45) or leave a pile of logs in a sheltered spot for them to nest in. 

Clean sweep Fallen leaves need to be swept from the lawn to keep It healthy, but should never be burned pile or bag them up to make leaf mold see pp.44-45). You can fashion a besom, or lawn broom, yourself by binding a bundle of twiggy prunings to a wooden shaft. An alternative If leaf-fall is not too heavy Is to mow over the leaves and leave them, shredded, In situ worms will soon take them down into the soil. 

Space Select vegetables to suit the space available. Even quite small areas can be very productive, using vertical as well as horizontal growing space. Remember to allow space for making leaf mold and compost. 

A low-fertility soil improver such as leaf mold can be incorporated as the bed is dug initially. This deep cultivation is useful where the soil is compacted. It results in a deep, fertile zone with an open, free-draining structure into which roots can easily penetrate. Medium- to high-fertility materials, if required, should only be mixed into the top 6-8 in (15-20 cm). Increases in yield are noticeable and plants cope better in drought. Make the edging at least 6 in (15 cm) high as the soil level will rise considerably. 

The term mold does not have a dear cut mycological definition. While the yeasts have a preponderantly positive value in food production and utilization, the molds make some positive contributions (some cheeses, etc.), but they partrcipate 111 many more negative ways (leaf molds on plants bine-green molds on fruits machinery mold causes of some foodborne diseases etc,). Some authorities identify all or most mold as saprophytes, as previously defined, This identification, however, is not fully satisfactory in terms of the present loose ways in which the word mold is used m the professional literature. Molds do play an important role in the biodegradation of unwanted substances. 

This comprehensive definition makes it elear that a wide number of substances may be eonsidered to be pestieides, and that the eommonality among all pestieides is their ability to provide eontrol over pests. A variety of classifications for pesticides have been developed that are specific for the type of pest controlled. Insecticides, for example, are pesticides that control insects, while herbicides control weeds and fungicides control plant diseases (molds). In addition to these major classifications of pesticides, there are many other classifications. These include nematicides (for nematode control), acaracides (mite control), rodenticides (rodent control), molluscicide (snail and slug control), algacides (algal control), bacteriocides (bacterial control), and defoliants (leaf control). 

Ryan, W.E. (December 1985). Method of making a molded fiber reinforced plastic leaf spring, US pat 4, 560,525... 

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