Fall fell on the Triangle region while I was in New Orleans and the pace of leaf drop from the trees in my back yard is picking up speed. The water and light permeable row covers I have over my collards and spinach is doing a great job of protecting the beds from litter.
But what to do with all of those leaves? I have more leaves than I could possibly mix in my compost bins since I had a late start to my gardens this year and I just don't have the greens to off-set the carbon.A few years ago I had seen an episode of Ask This Old House with Roger Cook talking about making leaf bin out of fencing to let the leaves compost on their own into leaf mold. This seemed a better use of the nutrients falling on my garden than curbside pickup so a quick trip to Lowe's later, I set up my own leaf bin.
It blends perfectly into the landscape and is currently holding .2 acres worth of leaves. Because I have a healthy amount of pine needles mixed in with the leaves, I took it one step further and used my weedwacker as as immersion blender to help get the process started by breaking down some of the leaves and needles as well as creating a little more room on top for round two which is sure to happen next weekend.I only purchased 4 rebars to do one bin but I have enough chicken wire left to do at least two more if I need to. All in all, a fun project with an attractive result that will give me gardening gold for my plants next year.