Autumnal Benefits 2

A week or so ago, I wrote about my leaf clearing workout and the disappointment of just putting the leaves out for the garbage men to collect.

Well, in the last few days the final load of leaves fell off the lime trees into our garden and this time it was Cat who went to get some fresh air and sweep them up. After a comment one of our readers made about using the leaves to feed the soil, Cat swept the leaves up and dumped them in our nearly empty veg patch (beets, chard and leeks still going strong) and turned them into the soil.

Cat working the veg patch!

Hopefully, the leaves will decompose in the veg patch by feeding worms and give us a rich soil for next years garden produce.

Autumnal Benefits

With autumn well and truly underway and the trees shedding their vibrant leaves, last weekend I finally found a spare hour or two to tackle the mounting leaf coverage in our garden.

We have two large Lime trees in our garden, that seem to hold an enormous number of leaves and which come autumn turn a vivid yellow and then promptly fall to the ground. For a short while, this yellow blanket transforms our garden until the rain comes and makes the leaves a slip hazard.

So, I spent Sunday morning sweeping and clearing up these leaves. This made me think about the benefits:

I was outside. It was a brisk morning (5-6ºC), the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky, so this made me feel happy;

I was burning calories. Sweeping and clearing leaves gets heart rate up, so I was keeping fit;

I was tidying the garden. With the leaves gone, the garden is back to looking fairly respectable and the borders are clear;

I was removing the hazard. No-more slip-sliding down the path, especially treacherous when you have a young baby.

In total, I had filled 3 large refuse sacks full of leaves which I left out for refuse collection on the Tuesday. I thought afterwards, there must be a way of using all of these leaves for our benefit. A much better scenario would be, for us to have a composting bin ready for the leaves, so that we could turn them into leaf mould, ready for feeding our garden the following year. 

It goes to show, that even the seemingly most mundane chore of clearing leaves can provide health, well-being and garden benefits. The leaf blanket has returned, so I am sure I will be out in the garden again this weekend!