3 Best Ways to Start Composting Fall Leaves Today

Fall is such a lovely season! The leaves on deciduous trees transform from green to stunning shades of red, orange, and gold, adding vibrant colors to the landscape and gardens.

But all gardeners are aware that it means several weeks of leaves dropping, piling up on the beds and borders, cluttering paths and driveways, clogging gutters, and covering the lawn with a thick layer.

While it takes a bit of effort, those fallen leaves are super useful! They can be composted to create a rich organic mulch and improve your soil, all it takes is some time and a little encouragement.

In this article, I’ll share what steps you can start taking today to start composting fall leaves and turn them into garden gold!

Are Fall Leaves Good for Composting?

Fall leaves are great for composting! They just need some other materials to mix in and create a balanced, healthy amendment.

When you gather a pile of leaves without adding anything else, you’ll end up making leaf mold. It’s a soil resource that’s rich in carbon and resembles compost, though it doesn’t have a lot of nitrogen. Using it as mulch is definitely more advantageous than using it to fertilize delicate, annual plants.

Whether you choose to make compost or leaf mold, you can feel good about turning organic matter into nutrients that plants can use. Keeping leaf litter in your garden is a great way to support both your plants and the local environment!

3 Tips to Start Composting Fall Leaves Today

1. Balance Browns and Greens

Great compost is all about having a nice balance of greens and browns. These two terms refer to different kinds of debris. Greens are the soft, nitrogen-packed organic matter, and browns are the dry, carbon-heavy materials. The best final product comes from a ratio of 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen by weight, resulting in minimal issues.

To get that perfect 30:1 carbon-to-nitrogen weight ratio, just toss in one shovelful of greens along with two or three shovelfuls of browns.

Fall leaves are brown materials packed with carbon and low in nitrogen, along with a variety of micronutrients. Brown materials include items like straw, fallen leaves, and paper or cardboard that haven’t been treated with chemicals.

To get the right balance in your compost, just mix in some kitchen scraps or grass clippings. Other green materials are manure, alfalfa meal, and coffee scraps.

2. Chop Up the Leaves

Fall weather can be a bit damp, chilly, and rainy. These conditions lead to too much moisture in your piles, turning them into soggy messes. It gets even trickier when the leaves are all grown up. Their surfaces stick together, creating solid chunks of rotting material.

To help things break down faster and avoid any clumping, try chopping the residues into smaller pieces before tossing them into the piles. The smaller size allows them to interact with more decaying organisms and worms, which helps avoid clumps that could slow down decomposition.

There are some handy tools that can really speed up the chopping process. If you’ve got a lawn, why not spread those leaves around and mow them up with a mulch plug? It’s a great way to keep things tidy!

Your lawn mower takes care of the leaves by chopping them up and bagging them, making your job a whole lot easier! You can also use pruners, rakes, or shovels to break down larger pieces into smaller chunks.

3. Consider Making Leaf Mold Instead

Leaf mold is made using a process that’s a lot like composting, but it’s just leaves all the way through! Fall is a great time to make this change, especially if you’re short on green waste.

Even though it needs fewer inputs than compost, it does take a bit longer to break down completely, and most piles probably won’t be ready until spring. The end result is definitely worth the wait! It’s got a rich black color, an earthy aroma, and is packed with nutrients for your plants.

To create leaf mold, just pile up some chopped leaves to about three feet high and wide. I enjoy tossing in some small twigs to the piles because they really help with structure and keep the airflow nice and steady. They have a lot of carbon, similar to a leaf, but they can really slow down how quickly things break down. Just toss in a few to help separate those moist leaf layers, and try not to overload the piles with too much wood.

Keep your leaf mold in check by turning, watering, and feeding your piles when needed. Make sure to turn your leaf mold at least once a week to help it break down faster! Whenever you make a turn, you bring in waste that new microbes and worms eagerly enjoy.

Make sure to water the piles until they’re about 50% moist, similar to a wrung-out sponge. You’ll have leaf mold ready in about three months or so. The more you turn it, the faster it breaks down!

Other Guides from Planet Natural:

How to Compost at Home: Step by Step Guide for Beginners

Worm Composting: Complete Beginners Guide (7 Step Process)