Leave on vegetable beds

[Mateo]

Hello

I’ve got two large sycamores at the end of my garden and come the autumn, they cover a wide area with leaves. Last year when I swept up I put them in a dalek compost bin to turn into leaf mould and those are still breaking down. However, I’ve taken to putting mesh loosely over my beds so that it makes it easier to keep the leaves off the beds and therefore easier to tidy. These beds are mainly chard and kale and there’s one bed of leeks (musselburgh) and I wonder whether I need to sweep the leaves up to avoid slugs around the beds or can I leave them until all the leaves are all down? I’m not so sure about putting more leaves in the leaf mould compost bin as I believe that the bin has a wasps nest (not sure what’s going to happen with that). If I need to sweep them, would you recommend mowing them and then putting them on by main compost heap or can I do something else with it?

[Rhys]

Mateo

If you cover your beds you can actually put a layer of leaf litter on top if you wish. You will find that worms will drag them down through the winter and you can generate a very nice tilth in the spring. Unfortunately, if you don’t keep the beds covered winter winds will probably blow everything away………….if you still have undigested leaves on the surface come spring, you can simply rake them up and put them elsewhere when you are ready to sow anew…………

[Mateo]

So do you mean, to let the leaves fall and then cover the leaves on the bed?

[Author]

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