The Garden Spot
by Kate Royers Gessert
Leaf Mulch
Winter mulching is important in our climate;
long winter rains can leach nutrients out of the
soil, and wash away the soil itself, unless it is
covered. Winter cover crops are one way of
covering it; another way is mulch. You may have
plenty of leaves in your own yard to use for
mulch. There are some leaves that you should put
in the garbage instead of using them for compost
or mulch. These include leaves (and other parts)
of plants that are diseased, leaves and windfall
fruits from apple trees, in which apple scab can
winter over, and leaves of black walnut trees,
which contain juglone, a substance which inhibits
the growth of many plants.
If you would like extra leaves for garden mulch
and compost, there's an excellent free resource
available locally. The Eugene City Maintenance
Division collects leaves that some gardeners pile
in the street, and delivers them to other gardeners
who can use them.
You can ask tor leaves by completing a delivery
request form, available at the leaf program's head
quarters — Eugene Public Works Maintenance Di
vision, 1820 Roosevelt Boulevard —at the city's
Permit and Information Center, 244 East Broad
way, or at community centers throughout the ci
ty. If you prefer to get leaves on impulse, you can
wait until you see leaf pick-up going on in your
neighborhood, run out and ask the leaf-truck
driver for a request form, fill it out on the spot,
and have your driveway full of leaves, all within a
matter of minutes. The disadvantage to this
method, of course, is that if you don't notice the
leaf pick-up crew coming through your neighbor
hood, you won't have any leaves.
Leaves are no longer picked up after January 3,
so your request should be in at least several weeks
before that to make sure you get leaves. Occa
sionally leaf requests can't be filled, usually be
cause there isn't room for the dump truck that car
ries the leaves to unload. If you have low-hanging
trees or wires, or an alley where a dump truck
can't swing around to get in unloading position,
see if you can convince a neighbor with a big
driveway to share the leaves and let you use their
place to unload.
You can make specific requests about the
leaves. You can get either a regular or large dump
truck load. The regular is about 7 cubic yards of
leaves; the large is about 12. You can ask for
leaves from lightly-travelled streets, so that you
will not be adding lead to your soil along with the
leaves. I strongly recommend you do this; wheth
er you are going to be using the leaves around
food plants or ornamentals or both, there's no
point in adding extra lead to any soil. You can
also ask that black walnut leaves and oak leaves
not be included in your leaves. Large quantities of
oak leaves may acidify the soil, and most local
soils are already acid enough.
Some people feel uncomfortable about setting
specific conditions on the leaves that are delivered
to them, but it really is okay! I have checked all of
this out with the head of the leaf program, and he
says it's fine to make these specific requests.
Using the Leaves
What do you do with all these leaves once you
get them? You can put some in your compost pile,
and use others to mulch your garden. I use them
very heavily (a 9-inch layer) in a woodland gar
den, and the native wildflowers and shrubs that
grow there are thriving. Spreading their roots
through a heavy layer of leaf litter on top of the
soil, and having lots of leaves mixed in with the
soil, too, approximates the conditions of their
native forests.
I mulch my vegetable beds with leaves as well,
and in the spring I add organic fertilizers to the
partly decomposed leaves, with extra nitrogen to
aid in leaf decomposition, and turn everything in
to the soil. Heavy use of winter mulch in my
garden has cut down tremendously on weeds;
there are now very few. (If there are areas of your
garden where you want wildflowers or other
plants to reseed, don't use mulch there.)
I have been mulching perennial flowers with a
6-inch leaf layer, but I have read recently that it's
better to mulch them with a lighter-textured
mulch that air can get through, and that new
sprouts can push their way through in the spring.
During winter rains, leaves tend to mat down into
a fairly solid layer, but straw, for example, is
light. Make sure to use straw rather than hay, be
cause hay is full of grass seeds.
One important reason to mulch perennials in
winter is to keep the soil cold. Without mulch, the
soil around perennials' roots alternately freezes,
and thaws, especially with our fluctuating winter
temperatures, and as the water inside the plants'
roots repeatedly expands and contracts, the roots
are literally ripped apart. A winter mulch pre
vents this. It should be put on in the next month
or so, and left there until after all possibility of
frozen soil is past. April is a safe time to take it
off.
My favorite use of last year's leaves was the
creation of a "leaf lawn." I had decided I had to
replace the scruffy lawn in our backyard, so last
fall I covered it with 6 inches of leaves, to kill off
the old grass before I planted new grass. In the
winter, a vast, lumpy sea of leaves extended down
our backyard. By spring, the leaves had settled in
to a flat 2-inch layer; occasional wisps of grass
and stalwart dandelions emerged, but by and
large, the lawn had vanished. After I raked the
twigs and seeds off the surface of the dense leaf
layer, I was left with a smooth, dark brown sur
face, comfortable to walk on, and definitely low
maintenance. I think I may stay with the leaf
lawn, and not bother with grass at all!
Putting the Garden to Rest
in addition to mulching, there are a few other
garden jobs that it's good to attend to now. Then
you can enjoy winter in peace, knowing that your
plants are all tucked in and safe.
If you still have bulbs to plant, plant them now I
If this cold weather continues, the soil will soon
freeze, and then digging will be impossible, and
your bulbs will be homeless.
Cutting back dead stalks of plants keeps the
garden not only tidy-looking but healthy.
However, leave the lower stalks of perennials to
let you know where they are, so if you are digging
near them in the spring, you won't dig them up by
mistake. This is especially important with peren
nials that are late to sprout: balloon flower, for
example.
If you will be harvesting vegetables and herbs
during the winter, make sure now that you have
paths to give you relatively dry, easy access to the
plants you’ll be harvesting.
Then you can sit back and enjoy yourself!
There is lots to love in the garden at this season.
The juncos are back, the cedar waxwings are
working their way through town, and many other
familiar and unusual birds are harvesting berries
from fall bushes. Now that many trees have lost
their leaves, one can see more easily their tower
ing, twisted, or spreading branches, the peeling or
smooth or furrowed texture of their bark, and
their variously shaped buds, promises of next
year's leaves and flowers.
IKate Rogers Gessert's book, The Beautiful Food
Garden, is going out of print. She has bought the re
maining copies back from her publisher, and will be selling
them at Saturday Market on non-rainy Saturdays dur
ing December for $6 to $10 on a sliding scale (originally
$24.95). Come and get a book while they last, or buy
several for holiday gifts!)
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