With a strong hint of fall in the air and first signs of color on the leaves, my mind turns toward the bounty that will soon follow. The autumn leaves that fall from the trees are the makings of rich garden mulch and compost that I will gladly collect. Even my neighbors are well-trained by now. They know they are not to throw their precious leaves away or leave them for the Monday morning trash pickup, or worse, burn them.
No, those leaves are for me. The annual fall ritual around my neighborhood is to collect all my immediate neighbors' bagged leaves. They would spend several weekends raking large piles of leaves into countless bags. Throughout the next several months, I would haul each of those bags onto my lawn, where I proceed to dump them onto the grass. I empty enough bags to completely cover the lawn in a blanket of red, orange, brown and yellow leaves.
I can only imagine the early looks I must have gotten from those neighbors until they figured out what I was up to.
Next came the fun part. I'd run my large mulching mower over those leaves until they were shredded into very small pieces. The remnants were then raked or blown into all my garden beds, where they became the mulch for the season, a blanket for keeping the roots warm and the soil moist, a weed barrier, an attractive top dressing and most importantly, amendments to improve my soil and planting beds for years to come.
I've been on this ritual now for many years, and the results have been dramatic. Each year as I lug leaky trash bags full of damp leaves and brackish water onto my lawn (and clothes), I no longer question if it's really worth it. I already know the answer and the results are obvious. However, the work involved is a bit labor-intensive. But, as I've said many times, there are no shortcuts to great gardening. This is a prime example with great rewards.
My strange and rather obsessive attraction for collecting leaves is no secret. Apparently word has gotten out about my leaf fetish. I received an email in the early years from someone on the other side of Atlanta. She was more than willing to donate her leaves for my collection. All I had to do was rake them all up and haul them to my garden. "No thanks," I said, while adding I still had over 150 bags from my neighbors that I needed to get to first; maybe next year.
Joe Lamp'l is the host and executive producer of Growing a Greener World on the Public Broadcasting Service.
HomeStyle on 09/27/2014