Leaf mould

Leaf mould

Gardeners gold, leaf mould, is lovely stuff. It's great for sowing seeds and improving the soil (mine is clay though, thanks to the previous owners, well worked and not too claggy). My garden is full of trees so I find the best way to collect leaves is to mow over them in autumn with the mower set high. It makes a great hoover and partially chops them up and adds just a little grass to help the leaves with rotting down.

Last autumn I managed to fill a second dumpy bag with leaves, I already had one filled from the year before. The older bag now has barely 4 inches of leaf mould as it loses a lot of volume over time. It's not perfectly ready to use as it could do with another year... but I've already nibbled into it and  suspect that it won't stay around that long. In previous years I have used bin bags but this is no longer my preferred method as they get chewed to pieces by animals over time.

Shown above is my latest find, buried amongst an overgrown patch of clutter. A bin bag of at least 3yr old leaf mould, probably older. I am so chuffed to find this! It is beautiful crumbly, friable, touchable stuff, far nicer than any compost. When we moved here I brought all of my leaf mould with me much to the disgust of C. All the other bags have long since been emptied so this is indeed a happy find.