On Tuesday we managed the mildest temperature this month then quickly followed that with the wettest day of the month on Wednesday. That mildest temperature was 15.1°C well above expected for late November and the rain gauge notched up 13.4mm for the day. I’d like to think that will remain the wettest day of November but the forecast is for lots more rain and gale force winds over the next few days.
The rain has certainly brought down a lot more leaves from our magnolia tree. The path alongside the house was once again covered in leaves.
When the rain stopped on Wednesday afternoon I decided to sweep up the leaves and continue my black bag leaf composting trial as recommended by Monty Don on Gardener’s World. I’d got some sound advice from Liz who’d tried this method, not too successfully, and found that normal plastic bags start to break down before the leaves. So Liz recommended using old compost bags which are considerably stronger instead.
The newly fallen leaves were swept up and along with the contents of the previous plastic bag all added into an old compost bag. With a good shake the leaves settled enough to allow the top of the bag to be tied up. A few drainage holes were made and it contents left to produce some (hopefully) magical compost.
On the garden, beneath the magnolia tree, there’s still an amazing covering of leaves. These will all be left where they are to break down in their own time and improve the soil in this area of the garden. The wildlife will enjoy foraging amongst them through winter. I did remove the leaves from the bird bath to leave enough space for the birds to actually have a bath.
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Snap! I've just stuffed a whole bunch of leaves into an old compost bag too! - I did notice the bag had tiny perforations all over it already so didn't bother making any more myself. However, I did place a couple of bricks on top because another blogger reckons the weight helps the process along? Can't wait to see how much of the black stuff it makes next year!
ReplyDeleteI might put a couple of bricks on the top too. I've left the bag somewhere I can easily give the leaves a shake to keep them mixed up. A bit like turning a compost heap.
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