5 Ways to Use Fall Leaves to Recharge Your Garden Soil

Some people see all the fallen leaves from their deciduous trees as a nuisance. All that leaf litter adds a list of chores they have to check off the list: sweeping their decks and patios, raking their lawns so the leaves don’t smother the grass, bagging them up and sending them to the landfill. My take?

I see autumn leaves as a free and easy way to improve my soil over winter, and a few years ago, I actually “rescued” other people’s leaves from the landfill by picking up 300 bags of fall leaves all over town so I could use them in my own garden! (I am also that crazy person who invited a stranger to dump a trailer load of his leaves in my yard. I’m not sure who was happier about that!)

Compost and mulch have incredible benefits for the soil, and fall leaves are a gold mine because they can serve as a soil conditioner, compost, and mulch. They’re an abundant source of organic matter, which feeds earthworms and keeps the soil food web healthy, and they also improve soil tilth by increasing drainage in sandy soil or aerating heavy clay soil.

Different leaves have different nutrient profiles, but one chemical analysis of municipal leaves collected across New Jersey found them to contain all the essential nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) as well as many trace minerals (including calcium, magnesium, and sulfur). While leaves are not (on their own) a complete fertilizer, they’re an effective soil amendment that should never go to waste.

Here are five easy ways to put them to use in your garden.

1. Add leaves to your compost pile.

If you sometimes struggle to find enough materials to build up your compost, fall is the perfect time to change that! The season produces a lot of fall leaves and other yard waste that quickly piles up.

You can layer dried leaves (known as “browns,” as they’re higher in carbon) with fresh weeds, grass clippings, and the last of your summer crops (known as “greens,” as they’re higher in nitrogen) in a 1:2 ratio of brown to green.

2. Stockpile leaves as brown matter for your compost pile.

Do you have a ton of leaves that would just overwhelm your compost piles? Don’t toss them—save them! You can store excess fall leaves in sturdy yard bags or lidded trash cans. Every time you empty your kitchen compost bucket into the outdoor compost pile, add a few handfuls of leaves as well.

In winter, the amount of kitchen waste we produce usually outpaces the amount of brown material we can collect. I find that I always need more carbon materials in winter since fruit and vegetable scraps are generally higher sources of nitrogen. When most of my “greens” come from the kitchen instead of the yard, I go with a brown to green ratio of 1:1 (up to 3:1, depending on the scraps).

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3. Use leaves as winter mulch for overwintering crops and perennials.

Mulch reduces soil erosion; insulates roots and crowns from cold, dry air; and helps keep weeds at bay. And it just so happens that all those leaves make an excellent protective mulch for overwintering crops and perennials, including garlic, asparagus, rhubarb, cold-hardy herbs, shrubs, and trees.

You can mix dried leaves with other materials, like straw or pine needles, to create an airier mulch. As the leaves and other organic matter break down, they release nutrients into the soil that give overwintered plants a boost in spring.

One important thing to note is if your leaves are on the larger or thicker side, such as oak or sycamore leaves, they should be shredded before you use them. These types of leaves can mat together and create a dense barrier that blocks air and water from penetrating the soil.

There are a few ways you can chop leaves into smaller pieces:

• Run a lawn mower over them with a mulching blade and rake them up.
• Run a lawn mower over them with a bag attachment.
• Gather all the leaves into a trash can and shred them with a string trimmer.
• Use a leaf mulcher (my personal recommendation).

I’ve owned this electric leaf mulcher for several years and it performs flawlessly. It’s easy to operate, easy to store in the off season, and can condense at least 10 big yard bags into just 1 bag. I use this collapsible leaf bag with it, which fits perfectly under the mulcher. (I particularly like how the top cinches shut.)

In the past I’ve also used this leaf blower that comes with a mulcher and vacuum attachment. It works well for small mounds of leaves, but can get tedious if you’re trying to tackle an entire yard full of deciduous trees.

4. Save the leaves for spring.

You can also store bagfuls of leaves to mulch your garden beds in spring or make new garden beds. Layer them in a lasagna-style bed with other organic matter to create a rich, loamy soil, or use them to bulk up beds where the soil volume has settled over winter. (Just put a layer of finished compost over the leaves so you have a smooth, fluffy medium for sowing seeds.)

5. Make leaf mold.

Leaf mold is a fungal-driven process of decomposition that turns leaves into compost. It’s a much slower process than bacterial-driven compost (which has a nitrogen source to speed up decomposition) but it’s also largely hands-free.

Simply pile all of your whole or shredded leaves into yard bags, mesh cages, compost bins, or other enclosures and let them break down naturally. (The smaller the leaves, the faster they’ll break down—so it’s worth the effort to shred your leaves first if you want to make compost quicker.) Periodically wet down the leaf pile to allow fungi to colonize; you want the leaves just lightly damp, like a wrung-out sponge.

Depending on the size of the leaves and how vigilant you are about keeping the leaf pile moist, it can take anywhere from six months to two years to make leaf mold. Use it as a mulch for vegetable beds to feed the soil.