Autumn provides a treasure for your soil

Gathering up fallen leaves and leaving them to decompose may mean a wait of up to 12 months, but the end result will have huge benefits for your garden, writes Fiann Ó Nualláin.

I AM all for a bit of thrifty gardening but I’m more for a bit of ecological application — leaf mould is both. It’s a free resource, literally lying all about the place this weekend and no one will mind you bagging it up for yourself and taking it away before it becomes a slippy nuisance in few weeks’ time. It’s a natural way to improve the structure of your soil or to make some potting mixes next year.

There are two ways to make it — the bag method and the bin method — before we look at both let’s look at what’s so good about it and why gardeners call it brown gold. In essence, leaf mold is the end product of simply letting gathered up autumn leaves sit and decompose to a dark brown to black crumbly texture — similar in texture and earthy aroma to a good well-cooked home compost. And like compost it is humus rich.