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Trees in the Garden: Leaves of Life

11/27/2022

3 Comments

 
Picture
It's heartbreaking to see people throw away or burn their best source of nutrients and fertility in the name of tidiness.
If you have leaves, lucky you.
If you can get your neighbor's leaves, do it.

How to use them? If they fall on perennial beds, bulbs, shrubs orchards, or beneath trees, you don't have to do anything except feel smug about the fertility they are adding.

If they are on grass or pavement or other places where they are not convenient, rake them up and put them
  • as a mulch on vegetable or perennial beds
  • in the compost
  • in their own pile to make leaf mold and potting soil
  • through the shredder if you have one so they will rot down faster
Leaves add all-important carbon to the soil, but have enough nitrogen so that they don't cause nitrogen loss when used in the garden. They are full of minerals the tree brings up from deep layers of the soil. They host beneficial fungal networks and mycelium. They make the best potting compost for starting seeds because they contain gibberellic acid, which spurs germination.

Traditional English gardeners kept leaves in their own compost area, and used the crumbly dark  humus from under the pile for seed starting mix. You can mix 3 parts leaf mold with 2 parts garden soil and one part coarse sand, perlite, vermiculite, rice hulls, or other  drainage-promoting ingredient.

Want to make a new vegetable bed out of lawn or a weedy area? I do this:
1)Mark out your new bed. Find and wet some pieces of cardboard (any cardboard box is good, as long as it is not shiny and doesn't have colored inks--brown cardboard and black ink are fine.) Remove the plastic tape, if any. Overlap the edges and any holes, so weeds can't grow through. Let the cardboard extend a foot outside the edge of the future bed, to prevent weeds from coming in.
2)Pile on leaves, straw, grass clippings, and other garden "waste"
3) Keep moist and protected from wind. A tarp or sheet can be used if necessary. Or another layer of cardboard and a rock.
4) uncover in spring and plant squash, tomatoes, or potatoes. None of those object to a few lumps and leaves. Keep mulched all season with more leaves, straw, etc.
5) By the next year, you have good garden soil and can plant anything.

Leaves to avoid
Most deciduous tree leaves are great for your garden. Pine and especially spruce needles are not so good for vegetables and should be left under their mother tree or used on forest plants that can deal with the oils in them. I am not so worried about acidity, but spruce and cedar do have natural herbicides to prevent the germination of other plants, so leave them in place where they will prevent weeds.

Oak, elm, cottonwood, fruit trees, maple, and other broadleaf trees are all good. Avoid black walnut and eucalyptus. They have poisons in that not only prevent germination, but can kill adult plants of sensitive species.

If you, like me, have a black walnut, you can find lists online of common landscape plants sensitive to juglone, the chemical that walnuts produce. Under my black walnut, a few adapted plants thrive--grass, miner's lettuce, currants, crampbark, filberts, & elder. Vegetables that tolerate juglone include corn, squash, beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, and onions. (NOT brassicas, spinach, chard, or tomatoes.) Since the roots exude juglone as well as the leaves and nuts, don't site sensitive plants near a walnut. Half my garden is in the "walnut zone" and I grow only tolerant plants in that part.

If you rake up walnut leaves, they can still be composted and make fertile soil, but if there are a lot of them, keep them in their own pile. You can use it on the many plants that don't have sensitivity.

Another great tree-based resource is ramial wood chip. More on that in another post.

(The photo at the top is looking toward our garden from the river. Boats are drawn up for the winter. For scale, the greenhouse in the photo is 15 feet tall. The giant oaks are matriarchs that nourish all forms of life here.)
Picture
3 Comments
Rebecca
12/1/2022 07:00:23 pm

I thoroughly enjoy every newsletter as well as your website. I appreciate your post about using cardboard to prep areas for the spring. I plan to do that when I can get outside. Single digit night time temperatures lately (and cold days)have me staying inside, reading seed catalogs and dreaming of next year's garden
Quail seeds will be a part of that new planting! Best regards and please keep up the good work you do. From the "sagebrush steppes" in northern Nevada

Reply
Shana
12/16/2022 05:44:28 pm

Thanks for another great newsletter!

Reply
Unique Environment Ltd link
7/5/2023 04:11:13 am

The 'Leaves of Life: Trees in the Garden' article is a delightful read. Trees play a crucial role in creating a harmonious and sustainable garden environment. I appreciate how Quail Seeds emphasizes the multiple benefits of trees, from providing shade and privacy to attracting wildlife and improving air quality. The informative content and beautiful imagery in this blog post showcase the beauty and value of incorporating trees into garden landscapes. It's inspiring to see individuals and organizations like Quail Seeds promoting the importance of trees in creating thriving and eco-friendly gardens. Well done!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Jamie Chevalier lives and gardens on a river in the Coast Range of Northern California. She has gardened professionally in Alaska and California, as well as living in a remote cabin, commercial fishing, and working with seeds.  She is the proprietor of Quail Seeds.

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  • Home
  • Shop
    • Plant for Summer
    • Vegetable Seeds >
      • Arugula
      • Beans
      • Beets
      • Broccoli and Cima di Rapa
      • Cabbage
      • Carrots & Roots
      • Celery
      • Chard
      • Corn
      • Cucumber
      • Eggplant
      • Fennel
      • Genepools and Landrace Gardening
      • Greens
      • Kale and Collards
      • Lettuce
      • Melons
      • Oil Crops
      • Okra
      • Open-Source Seeds (OSSI)
      • Onions and Leeks
      • Peas
      • Peppers
      • Spinach
      • Squash & Pumpkins
      • Sunflowers
      • Tomatoes
      • Tomatillos/Husk Cherries
      • Turnips and Rutabagas
      • Winter and Greenhouse Vegetables
    • Perennial Vegetable Seeds >
      • About Perennial Vegetables
    • Flower Seeds
    • Herb Seeds >
      • Medicinal and Historic Herbs
      • Culinary Herbs (and teas)
      • Herb Collections
    • Seed Collections
    • Pollinator and Pest Control Plants >
      • Pollinator and Pest Control Mixes
      • Plants for Pollinators
    • Grains >
      • Heirloom Wheat Barley Oats & Rye
      • Gluten-Free Grains
    • Cover Crops >
      • Cover Crop Mixes
      • Cover Crops that are Food Crops
      • Decorative Cover Crops
    • Open Source (OSSI)
    • New for 2025
    • Plant for Spring >
      • Spring Vegetables
      • Spring Herbs & Flowers
      • Spring Grains
      • Seeds that Need Winter Cold
      • Fast, Fresh Food
    • Plant for Fall >
      • Fall Vegetables
      • ltalian Fall Specialties
      • Herbs and Flowers for Fall
      • Fall Salad Greens
    • Start these Indoors
    • People behind the Seeds >
      • Carol Deppe Varieties
      • Jonathan Spero Varieties
      • Frank Morton Varieties
    • Companion Plants
    • Recipes >
      • Spring Recipes: Fresh Flavors of the Season
      • Tomato Recipes
      • Preserving and Fermenting
    • Mid-to-Late Summer Sowings
  • About Us.
    • Our Story
    • Shipping Info
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • HOW-TO