Many people truly hate getting out in the bleak mid-winter and raking up those Winter leaves from the garden. Well – If you want to enjoy low maintenance vegetable gardening in the summer, then the leaves are suddenly made out of gold!

As many of you regular readers know, I live in an apartment, and to enjoy the green English pastures, I have an allotment, or a Community Garden to those of you in the USA. My girlfriend has two HUGE wonderful trees in the back garden and once a year they shed their leaves all over their garden. You literally cannot see the grass.

This is great for me. I simply spend a few afternoons throughout the winter, and rake the leaves into durable bin sacks for storage. Once the spring comes, and my fledgling vegetables are getting settled, a known pest wants to grow right beside them – weeds! Taking the winter leaves, I throw them in a plastic bin, drop in some water for a bit of moisture and give the leaves a good bashing with a spade. This chops the leaves into tiny pieces, and then its just a case of throwing them on the ground around your veg. I try and stomp them into the soil so I get a nice firm layer.

The benefits of leaf mulching are numerous

Your soil moisture is maintained

It keeps weeds at bay

If you mulch round fruit trees, it will keep your apples and pears clean when they hit the ground

The leaves will eventually rot into the soil and provide some great organic matter for the following year