leaves

LEAVES
i wish to thank those of you that have donated
leaves to me for use in my compost pile and
my organic garden

each year i collect bags of leaves
lots of leaves
last year it was somewhere between 75-100 bags of
leaves that would have gone into your land fields

a cardiologist i knows wife is a big organic farmer
and whom i will let remain nameless
they drive around the neighborhood where they live
and steal bags and bags of leaves
ok im a sucker for leaves also and have been known
to stop and fill the car trunk or truck with bags of leaves

over a two year process these leaves go from your yard
to my chicken coop area to my compost piles and then
into my garden beds
the chickens shred the leaves and add nitrogen to the
carbon from the leaves ie they take dumps of poop
while playing in the leaves

this picture is from an aerial view of our property
taken a few years ago
the black tank is one of my rainwater tanks thats used
to irrigate the garden with
i have since moved them to a higher elevation behind
my barn so ill have greater pressure for my drip irrigation

the white stuff in my garden is row cover thats used
when the temperature is cold
this picture was taken in the early winter before my winter
garden started growing well

here is the layout of my garden
the chicken coop is on the far left side the metal roof
is visible
the coop has about 10 ft x 40 ft area thats connected
to the coop
10 chickens equal 40 ft apiece when they are locked up

however there is a chicken run that is c shaped or horseshoe
shaped that wraps around my 900 square foot garden space
the garden space extends from the right of the aerial picture
to the edge of the coop area
the chickens have free run of this c shaped area during the day
they will dig scratch shred the leaves that i have spread out
along this c shaped run

also they love to dig in my compost pile that is 4 ft x 20 ft x 2 ft
they can reduce a 3 ft pile of composting leaves etc to almost
nothing in a few weeks

i leave the leaves in the chicken runs for about 6-9 months
they add the nitrogen poop to the leaves which they eventually
shred down to nothing and also add feathers as the molt them
each year

then once a year i rake this all up and place it in my compost
pile which they continue to jump in and reduce its size even more
we also add kitchen scraps and newspapers to the compost pile
and add any leaves or grasses or plant trimmings from our garden
or yard

what i have left is this great mixture of materials that makes the
best compost ive ever had

then i spread this in a 3-4 inch layer over my garden beds usually
in the winter so it can mature until its planting time in the spring

the end result is this bed of winter greens which we use
almost on a daily basis in the winter time in our kitchen
and a spring summer fall garden that provides much
produce all year

so again
thanks to all of you leaf donors
be sure and donate or use your leaves yourself

the organicgreen doctor