Forum
Tell a Friend about Us
Environment
Make An Easy Coffee Can Bird House
How to Make Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders
Attracting Nesting Birds
Soil Basics - Creating Fertile, Healthy Soil
Mulching Benefits - Organic And Inorganic Mulch Types
UK Zone Map
How to attract bees to your garden
How to attract pest predators
Pest Control - Good Bugs
Companions & antagonists in the organic garden
Crop rotation
Mulching in the organic garden
Growing
Organic vegetables cultivation table
Organic herbs cultivation table
How to grow organic herbs
Culinary Herb Gardening
Grow your own salad
Sprouting seeds
Unusual fruits
How to prepare a seedbed
Organic crops sorted by family
Organic crops sorted by name
Organic crops sorted by difficulty
Everyone needs a spaghetti garden
Compost and Nutrition
Making loam and leafmould
Making worm compost
Best ways to use compost
Compost problems
Special compost mixtures
Green manures
C:N ratio of commonly composted materials
N:P:K analysis of compost materials
7 compost factors
Soil PH And Its Effect On Your Garden
Understanding Soil Nutrients
Kill or Cure
Traditional garden treatmentsHow to recognise mineral deficiencies in the organic garden
How to use organic fertilisers
Aerated compost tea
Ornamentals
Protecting Your Lawn the Organic Way
How to Grow Phalaenopsis Orchids
Identifying Houseplant Pests
Planning A Flower Garden
Perennials Versus Annuals
How to make a Meadow
Blue wild flowers for your garden
Buying A Conservatory In The UK
Tips For Spring Gardening
Which gazebo is right for you?
Fertilising ornamental plants
Rose gardening challenges
Right plant, right place
Other
10 Free Gardening Products
Water Garden - Pond Pumps To Pump Up The Volume
Water Gardens That Upset The Neighbours
Useful addresses for organic gardeners
Organic garden glossary
What Family is that crop?
About organic seeds
Barrier hedging
How to Plant Hedges
Cooking garden produce
Storing garden produce
Storing seeds
Simple seed savingFreezing garden produce
Why you should use Gypsum
Even Greener Products for your garden
Visit our Forum
About us
Links page
Add URL
Privacy
Disclaimer
Contact us
How to make loam and leafmould
by Frann Leach
Looking for something else?
While loam may be available, to be certain that it is both organic and of good quality may be a problem. As for leafmould, you will be lucky to find a source of this, organic or otherwise. But both are very easy to make for yourself, needing only a quiet corner, and no attention beyond the initial stacking until they are ready for use in a year or two.
To make loam
Cut turf (minimum two years old), free from weeds and couch grass, with about 5cm (2") of soil attached. Stack grass-side down for at least a year.
To make leafmould
In most towns and suburbs it is possible to obtain dead leaves, either unofficially by bribing the road men, or officially through the council. A traditional leafmould heap can go in dry shade under trees where nothing much will grow. Level the ground and drive in stout posts 3 feet high at the corners, adding extra posts every yard if you are going to have leaves enough to make a large heap. Staple 3 foot high wire netting to the outsides of the posts and pile in the leaves as they are gathered, removing dead branches and paper litter if they are swept from the streets. Hose the heap once or twice the first summer, especially if this is a dry one.
Never include weeds or garden rubbish in the leaf pile (or dead leaves in a compost heap), for the decay of leaves is carried out by fungi that need no oxygen because there is very little heating, and the whole process is much slower. After a year the heap will have sunk and firmed, so the posts can be dug up with the netting and moved to make the enclosure for next autumn's leaves. Year old leafmould is good enough to dig into a sandy soil or to lighten clays, but for potting soil it should wait for another year.
Leafmould may be hastened by pouring Household Liquid Activator on the leaves. This will break down refractory leaves (e.g. plane, chestnut) in one year rather than three, and produces improved decay for leaves of any kind. Another system begins with a traditional leaf stack, but in the spring, as soon as ample lawn mowings are available, turn the leaf stack, mixing in about 25 percent of its bulk of the mowings. This will produce good "leafmould" in as little as six months, which will make an excellent surface coat to go between bush fruit, or as a mulch for no-digging systems.