Fallen leaves rich source of plant nutrients

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Published: November 10, 2008

About this time every year, homeowners head out to their yards to rake up all the fallen leaves, bag them and leave them at the curb for the trash truck to haul away.

Samantha Snyder, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service educator, says you might as well wad up $100 bills and add them to the bags of leaves.

Fall leaves are among the most valuable resources to be found in the landscape, she writes in her article, "Make Your Own Garden Gold” at http://mastergardener.okstate.edu.

Though composting can be somewhat time-consuming, she writes that the result will be a rich compost that can improve the soil in your vegetable and flower beds.

Your leaves can be chopped up with a mulching lawnmower. You can create a compost pile with these leaves. Remember to turn the compost pile periodically to keep the compost process at top speed. By moving all of the materials, she writes, the pile is reinvigorated with fresh oxygen, and the areas that were on the outside of the pile are moved to the inner part where the action is happening.

Add to your compost pile any organic food waste except for dairy and meat products.

Over time, your compost will turn into "black gold,” a great soil additive with the advantage of diverting waste that would otherwise end up at the landfill.

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