Peter Dowdall: Yes, money does grow on trees

Collect fallen leaves, place them in a hessian bag or in a heap and in less than 12 months you will have the perfect soil enricher

Instead of looking at fallen leaves as a waste product, we should use them to create the greatest soil conditioner that we can add to our gardens. Picture: iStock

How many times have you used the expression that money doesn’t grow on trees? Well, guess what, it’s not true. There’s no need to rush out and search garden centres throughout the land for a good soil conditioner when the best of all of them is available to us free of charge — literally falling at our feet every day at the moment.

Okay, so perhaps the euro notes aren’t falling from the trees but the raw materials for the best soil additive we can use are. Collect fallen leaves, tie them up in a hessian bag — or even just a big heap that you can then cover — and in less than 12 months you will have a bag or a heap of beautiful, crumbly, friable soil enricher.