whats left

WHATS LEFT

take thousands and thousands of these guys and put them
in a bag
you know a lot of you do this every year and put them on the
curb to be disposed of in usually land fields

we use to like to rake them up and jump in them and scatter them
i guess because we didnt have snow
we made leaf angels

thanks to the campises guynes butlers and nagles last year
hope i didnt leaf anyone out
and
thanks to my wife she and even me on occasion jumping
out of our car or truck and taking some of those bags off
your curb
hope you didnt mind
we accumulated close to a hundred bags of their and your leaves

so what did we do with your leaves and whats left of them

whats left allowed me to take this











an onion set i only plant the 1015 onions do so in january
300+ of them
then
in june i pull up the completed onion

this one is sitting right now on my kitchen cabinet
plucked from our garden in june
waiting to be used tonight on our pizza

heres what happened to your leaf

we placed the leaves in a layer about 1-2 ft deep in our
chicken run which runs around three sides of our garden
for a total of 90 ft
it is about 3 ft wide
think of a c laying on its back

then the chickens from march to now december walk through
these leaves
pick out any weed seeds any insects
then scratches and scratches and scratches them
if you have ever seen chickens scratch then you know what i mean
if you havent then its your loss

so that now in december they are shredded down to fine particles
which when combined with months of chicken deposits
and moisture and composting
make the best compost ever
it smells you know how good dirt and compost smells
so good you could almost eat it
almost

here is a picture of one leg of my chicken run or my compost pile
this week

this layer of compost is 3-4 inches deep
is 3 ft wide
is 90 ft long
running this information in the cubic foot calculator from the
natural gardener
i calculate that i have about 3 cu yards of the best compost
that you can ever use on your garden
that that you make yourself

i dug some of this up and after clearing off my 4 ft x 12 ft bed
where last year we had tomatoes planted
this year will be my onion bed
the bed is a combo of the anthill or hugelkulter method 
and
the keyhole garden method

i then place a 3-4 inch layer of my or your leaf compost on
the bed and spread it out evenly
i scattered an organic fertilizer in this case i used ladybug 8-2-4
you can use medina growin green or any good organic fertilizer
commercial fertilizers can build up salts in the garden
contaminate our water system
and can harm the dirts bacteria fungi and worms etc
then
i lightly scatter cottonseed meal over the bed

then
i cover it with a mulch i use in this case pine straw as it easily
lets in water but provides protection and warmth from the cold
sometimes i use your leaves for the mulch

now i wait
and let all this marinate now for two months
let it get good and rich and get that right flavor
then
i rake off the pine straw
poke a hole in the ground with my gloveless index finger
i like the dirt on my finger and under my nails
it seems to connect me better with my garden
i lightly sprinkle in some earth worm castings
then
i drop in the green onion plant and this all starts over again
and
we make these onion chimes again

you should try this
saving your leaves
make your own mulch
plant your own garden
see whats left
of your leaf

thanks again to the above mentioned families for their
kind donations to the country n organic garden

the organicgreen gardener