Leaves for worms - 2023 11 14

 

Whenever there is a dry moment I am working on collecting and processing the leaves for garden and worms.

I have worked out a pretty good method. First I use the blower to lift the leaves onto the garden soil. I have a cordless Makita blower. I wear a tool pouch to carry extra batteries so I can get all the blowing down in one try. I carry 4 fully charged batteries to get both curbs and all the sidewalks picked up. It makes a huge difference getting it done frequently so the weight of the leaves doesn't build up too much.

Then I run over them with the lawn mower. It must look kind of funny to see me 'mowing' my garden when I don't have any grass. It does the trick, though, because the leaves are left shredded. What I notice is that the shredded leaves have significantly less volume than the unshredded leaves. 

After the leaves are shredded I am working on rototilling them into the garden soil. We hauled this soil in from the municipal composting system. We learned last year that this soil has nice texture but it doesn't have any nutrients because the composting method at the municipality pretty much kills everything. This is my first year tilling the shredded leaves into the soil. 

In another section of the yard there is no garden soil but lots of leaves are accumulating on the clover I planted last year. This is the area I am going to mow and shred to feed the worms.