Reply To: New beds made of fresh leaves

[Allan Took]

Hi Gerry, I am 10 miles south of you and I started no dig beginning of this year. I was creating 4 foot beds on a full size allotment with composted green manure free from local authority collected by car and trailer. At the end I was short of about 2 yards of material and used newly fallen leaves to make up the bed covered by 1 inch of shop bought compost. The leaves were pure horse chestnut. Everything I planted in this section died. I then discovered horse chestnut leaves are alellopathic – that is they contain a chemical that prevents the growth of other plants. Black walnut leaves are the same. So you must be careful which uncomposted leaves you use