Comments on: I Put My Home Kitchen Garden to Bed

By: admin

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:51:20 +0000

Amy: In case you're still tuned in, I tracked down further encouragement for you to use oak leaves as mulch. Please take a look at this post on Kitchen Gardeners International.

By: patirica hannigan

patirica hannigan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:24:00 +0000

Very nice photos, I now feel inspired to begin gardening this Spring.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:15:26 +0000

Amy: I could see it as an advantage that the oak leaves take longer to decompose… that gives weed seeds more to overcome in your planting beds. Still, all good things seem to end eventually. There’s an oak forest where I walk several times a year; the ground is spongy there from all the leaves built up. There’s little undergrowth, I guess because weed seeds can’t take hold through the leaves. A lot of gardeners prefer to compost leaves before using them on their gardens. My approach reflects my own sloth… and it works!

Momisodes: I’ve read that some chefs serve woodland strawberries as some kind of delicacy. This works only if: 1. The variety of woodland strawberry they serve is different from what grows naturally around here. 2. The people eating the strawberries are gullible.
I wrote a post about wild fruit on my cityslipper blog back in July, where I described these excuses for fruit: Wild Fruit

By: Momisodes

Momisodes — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:49:49 +0000

I love salad mix lettuce. That’s wonderful they survived the frost.

I’ve never tried those strawberries before. They are rather colorful!

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:54:41 +0000

Yes, the oak leaves don’t seem to break down. Others do, but the oak leaves tend to stick around forever it seems. Maybe I should collect some pine needles as well, I have them laying around my house under a few trees. Thanks for your advice!

By: admin

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:47:05 +0000

Amy: I think using leaves as mulch is a terrific idea, but you can probably find people who will argue the point. Ideally, you can run the leaves through a shredder or a lawn mower so they’re more “mulch-sized.” The greatest problem with using leaves as mulch is that they blow around easily… not like heavier tree bark, pine needles, or compost.

When you say the leaves don’t break down, do you mean they won’t break down by spring? If you can get them to stay in place, they’ll break down–even by next spring there should be some good progress. When the snow melts, I expect to find a layer of leaves on my garden bed that’s about 1/8 inch thick. On top it will look like leaves pressed against the soil, but under that top layer, there will be a lot of nice humus that I’ll simply turn under wherever I dig.

I’ve written more about composting and using leaves as mulch in the sister blog of this one: Your Small Kitchen Garden

Bottom line: Autumn leaves make great mulch if you can keep them in place.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:31:17 +0000

Those woodland strawberries are doing their damndest to take over our landscaping in the backyard (in Illinois), but I do think they are pretty.

I was thinking of using the abundant fallen oak leaves as a mulch cover over the winter. Is this a good idea considering that the leaves don’t break down? I’m thinking it would make it easier to remove them in the spring.