What happens if I put too many leaves in my garden?

[Waynebro]

I like to put dead leaves from the previous year, saved in bags, down on the garden soil surface between rows to reduce weeding and conserve moisture. This year, I excavated a trench thru the garden too, to bury electrical power to a building. I buried it plenty deep, about four feet. Even though I tried to keep the clay seperate and then put it back into the trench first, some got mixed into the rest of the soil. The garden generally looks a bit tough right now after the trenching and backfill. I have plenty of leaves and so I thought I might put down a layer now, and till it in, to give the worms something to do this winter, reduce the frost depth, etc. What happens when I eventually put too many leaves in the soil? Do I have to add something else then, some other nutrient or something?
Thanks for any ideas...

I personally like to dump em on but I tend to mulch them up first. I find that multiple passes with my John Deere L111 fitted with mulching blades not only allows me to move the leaves into the area I want without having to rake (hate raking) but also being well mulched permits faster breakdown and compost.

 

[scott_vt]

The only concievable thing I can think to check, is your soil's PH in the spring and adjust if needed for whatever you plan on growing.

Good Evenin Jeff and Joe,
Joe has it right IMO, if you have alot of oak leaves your soil is going to be very acidic ! Check that PH and adjust with the proper amounts of lime.

 

[JDeerekid]

Good Evenin Jeff and Joe,
Joe has it right IMO, if you have alot of oak leaves your soil is going to be very acidic ! Check that PH and adjust with the proper amounts of lime.

If you put to many leaves on you will not want to add lime. That will just keep raising the PH. You will need to add sulfur to the the PH back down.

 

[scott_vt]

If you put to many leaves on you will not want to add lime. That will just keep raising the PH. You will need to add sulfur to the the PH back down.

Good Evenin JDeerekid,
I have allways been under the impression that by adding lime you are increasing your PH. Reducing your acidity. Here is a supporting article that I found on Google !

Soil Acidity and Liming (Overview)

 

[JDeerekid]

Good Evenin JDeerekid,
I have allways been under the impression that by adding lime you are increasing your PH. Reducing your acidity. Here is a supporting article that I found on Google !

Soil Acidity and Liming (Overview)

Yes adding lime increases your PH and reduces your acidity. But adding to many leaves and such will do the same thing as lime. Adding to much makes your soil to alkaline which is just as bad as being to acidic. So if your PH is to high you must add sulfur to bring the PH back down to neutral (7.0 PH). Most gardens soil should be around 6.7 - 7.2 PH which covers most plantings unless you have berry bushes which like a slightly more acidic soil.

 

[RalphVa]

Thomas Jefferson at his Monticello house kept extensive records. The only mulch he used on his vegetable garden was leaf mulch.

Virginia Tech recently did some research on this. Yes, the leaves initially lower the pH, but they eventually decay and compost with the pH coming back to neutral.

So, I agree with a couple of the other posters. You can't have too much leaf mulch. I've been putting leaf and shredded limbs onto my vegetable garden for 30 or 40 years to keep down weeds and to preserve moisture. It's dirt by the next season.

One year, I even put cardboard down between the rows. It all was dirt the next year.

Ralph

 

[Bird]

That sounds more like my methods, Ralph. I decided long ago that "composting" was too much trouble. I put all the leaves into the garden and tilled them in. I ran limbs and brush through the little 5 hp Craftsman chipper/shredder directly into the garden. I ran all my newspapers through the paper shredder and used what I needed of them for nesting material for my rabbits, then both used and unused shredded newspaper also went into the garden. Of course I also had a good bit of both cow and rabbit manure, so my garden did very well.