Fall Preparations

It is stunning to me how little it costs to make great mulch.  We have been working with two types of mulch systems, shredded leaves and whole leaves.  Both systems were started last fall.  The 50 bags worth of leaves that didn’t get shredded were dumped into the larger wooden bin system and also left until this September.  This makes some great stuff to put on your garden beds.  The pictures don’t really do this material justice, so ask us at the farmer’s market to see what this mulch really looks like.  When you add your food scraps (bokashi), you get even better quality.

Example of the black poly bin holding yard debris.

A big thing that I want to get across to our readers is that good mulch is less about work and more about planning.  Think in yearly cycles.  Start with assembling as many bags of leaves (not oak leaves) as you can manage, and store them in a corner of your yard.  I chose to use the moveable poly bins because they are light, flexible and easily stored out of the way until the following season.  I set up these bins where I want my mulch to be positioned for the following year.  That is permaculture thinking and reduces wheel barrow work later on.  After the annual cycle, I can easily move the lightweight poly bin to another spot on my property for the following year’s leaves.