It's time to think about making leaf mould again with this year's fallen leaves.
I thought I'd show you what happened to last year's drumful. A year ago, the drum was packed to the brim with shredded, fallen leaves, moistened and left alone in a shady place under the Mandarine tree.
Pic#1 shows the drum with lots of holes in it that 'processes' the leaf mould. It's really just to contain the leaves and let air and moisture get into the system.
You can see in pic #2 that the volume reduced by more than half through microbial, fungal and insect activity.
Pic #3 is the top few centimetres, pic #4 is the middle of the pile and the last pic is the super fine, finished stuff towards the bottom.
Next year, I'm thinking of turning the contents of the drum after 6 months or so to see if that will make the mould more consistent throughout the drum. I'll do a second drum too that will sit for 2 years, some folks swear by that.
