Hallo,
Ich werde mit einer neuen Methode für meine Gartenbeete experimentieren. Ich werde jeden Winter eine dicke Schicht Herbstlaub auf die Beete legen.
Die Idee ist, dass ich dadurch die Zeit, die ich mit dem Unkrautjäten verbringe, erheblich verkürzen wird und ich mit der Zeit nicht vorhabe, Düngemittel hinzuzufügen. Nur die Herbstblätter plus Chop-and-Drop-Methode. Stark ernährende Nutzpflanzen wie Tomaten könnten von einigen Nachbarn Kali usw. profitieren.
Dadurch entfällt auch die Notwendigkeit des Gießens. Letztes Jahr habe ich einen Großteil des Gartens mit Grasmulch bedeckt und musste in einem sehr trockenen Sommer kaum gießen.
Das Beet auf den Bildern ist ein Mischbeet mit einem Abschnitt für Stachelbeeren mit Frühlingszwiebeln darunter. Der andere Abschnitt ist eine Mischung aus Stauden und Blumenzwiebeln.
Was haltet ihr von dieser Methode?
Von: growlownhigh
7 Comments
Takes a long time to break down and you will still need to weed, feed and water but it all helps. Compost or manure on top will do better for you. A layer of cardboard is also a great mulch, if not very pretty.
Chop them up with a pair of garden scissors!
It won’t take that long that patch of ground and it will help them to break down.
The finer the better!
I used leaf mulch last year after the Housing Association gardeners didn’t turn up – brilliant stuff, worked so well that I specifically asked them this year to leave the autumn leaves for me – as well as adding nutrients to the soil it also works to a certain extent as frost protection and friendly garden critters like ladybirds overwinter in leaf piles- what’s not to like?!!
It will keep down weeds to some extent and also retain moisture in dry periods-dry periods-Wassat!? 🫣
Leaves or even rotted-down leaf mould have virtually no nutrient values.But over time will at least condition the soil.
I’ve started doing exactly this after observing the team at RHS Wisley doing it consistently. And they know a lot more about gardening than I do. I rake the leaves off paths and lawns onto the beds and borders in the autumn and it seems to do a good job of weed suppression and soil improvement, as well as creating a haven for bugs and creepy crawlies and even hedgehogs. I’m sold on it as a method. And it has the advantage of being a lot easier than clearing them all!!!
There’s a garden that’s open to the public somewhere in the south east of England run and maintained by one woman, she calls the technique chop and drop because that’s exactly what she does when pruning and trimming shrubs and plants, shectgen does exactly as you have with raked up leaves.
The only improvement I can think of would be to drop trimmings on the grass then collect them with a mower, doing the same with leaves would speed up but more importantly improve the decomposition of the matter, wether it’s worth it depends on many factors but if everything has rotted to soil by spring then it definitely isn’t worth speeding the process up.
Which is exactly what nature does.