Regen farmer of 10+ years and I 100% agree with stopping the imported compost and continuing leaf mulch. As you mentioned mulch had far reaching benefits, frankly just keeping the worms around is worth it. Keep up the good work, love the detailed quantification of results.
Thank you. I make all of my compost, and it isn't coming from manure. But I guess I will just dial it back a bit. I typically make a couple yards each year.
@@growitbuildit me too, has had a big impact on my gardening style (I collect tonne bags of leaves every year now and am not afraid to pile em up on the beds over winter, and not concerned about lack of nutrients).
Leaf mould is a major discovery for me. It's benefits are amazing. Everyone should be talking about it. Your c9ntent is exactly what I like. Descriptive and logical
I used to grind the leaves up with the mower spread them on top of the garden and cover them with black plastic December through March. First year I did that I had 2 feet of black soil and an earthworm convention.
Loved this video. This year, for the first time, I mulched all five of my raised beds with shredded hardwood leaves. Definitely noticed more earthworm activity, weeds were minuscule (almost non-existent) the mulch was FREE, etc. Also, water requirements were significantly less. No brainer to continue this going forward.
I really enjoy seeing the progress of your experiment! I did leaf mulch for the first time last year because of your videos and tell everyone in my gardening circle to watch the videos. Instead of being a chore, leaf collecting is sooo satisfying now. Maybe one thing you can look into is finding heavier feeder plants to help use up those extra nutrients. I am no veggie expert but just as an example, dahlias are heavy feeders and can probably live well interplanted with your veggies here and there?
I think that could be a good idea. But I'm really going to try to remove as much as I can next year, modifying my squash strategy to do so. The roots of my plants go all over the place, so the plants should be drawing from all over.
My garden (7bVA) began as hard compacted clay 12 years ago. I also use oak leaves to mulch. In the winter usually cover the garden with a layer of straw. This year, I planted cover crop of crimson clover, barley and oats in late Aug. I will chop and drop this n April. The idea is to leave the different layers root to decompose in place. This aerates as well as providing nutrients. My soil is rich and black like yours and my plot is highly productive. I have not done the measurements, but the leaf mulch was quick to rehab clay.
It's amazing how fast organic matter can work to improve compacted soil. You would think it would take decades, but it doesn't. Just a few years, and it transfers itself downwards - no tilling required.
Thank you for documenting your journey Joe! It’s so exciting to see how far simply collecting leaves and spreading them on your garden will take you. I’m excited to do this in my own garden now.
years ago my hedge burnt down and i threw what was left of the branches in a part of the garden i never used. a few years after that i started composting and had to dig for some posts. my shovel just went 20 centimeters (8 inches) into the ground without resistance. its amazing what fungus,earthworms and pill bugs can do.
I collected a massive amount of leaves last year and it looks great already, im going to use it in a homemade potting mix as i have worm castings and homemade compost and whats left over will go on my beds 👍👌😁
Thanks for the update Joe, I have great success using your info/wisdom for a few years now in an expanded version. We are in the temperate northwest and my wife has something growing year round so I do your leaf process in my composting area, then move it to the garden after it breaks down to a degree. I make 7 to 10 or so yards of compost every year using your methods. Only difference is I turn the piles with a tractor front end loader. All piles are on the ground. I mow and catch from 4 to 7 acres of grass here a year (mow every 2 weeks), add coffee grounds, and in the fall more leaves than I can even pick up. I have a coffee ground circuit we go on when we go out shopping, each time we gather 100 to 200 pounds. I leave one pile of leaves with no greens, I use it to add browns to piles if I need to latter. I am an old codger, I started out by turning by hand, but opted for the tractor by default. Thanks for your assistance. You are the best! By the way way my wife and I just got 2 Blue Heeler puppies a month ago. There favorite is frolicking in the piles, both leaves and green piles. When the piles go wormy the bears come in and dig through them for worms. My wife and I do not bring anything in from outside our place other than coffee grounds and our place has never been sprayed. So we have no need to worry about any of the sprays or other chemicals. I can send you a photo of our piles, green house and garden if you would like to see an expanded version of your awesome practical wisdom. Again, we have much appreciation for your no nonsense, practical advice! Kind Regards, Steve
Wow! You have quite the operations going. 7 to 10 yards of compost would definitely require a tractor, or it would be a huge part-time job in itself to turn by hand. I would love to see a picture. On my channel's "about" tab. there is a place where you can click to reveal an email address.
I've been following this series since the beginning and it is SUCH a treat when I see this update every year. I can't wait to see how your soil develops as you refine your approach based on data.
You got it! I was planning on making this the 'final' official ending of this, but when I saw the soil test results I figured I should probably keep it going just to see how it varies year over year.
@@growitbuildit definitely keep going, its one of the only sources of info/evidence online about deep mulching with leaves, and defies all common "wisdom" about it! Thank you 🙏
I get happy just hearing your voice in your intro, no matter what youre talking about!! Today'svideo is super informative though. We're looking at switching our veggie and pollinator garden locations and ive been wondering how the respective plants will do as we treat each very differently. Thank you for this - will look at soil testing👍🏼
I love using leaf mulch in the garden. Impressive results. One thing we do is plant winter annual like rye or wheat then smash it down in early June ( we’re in zone 5) and plant tomatoes into the thick mulch. Then during the season can add more mulch with leaves. The living roots in the soil will put organic matter feet down into your soil.
Very good addition. The soil life IS the most important part of this whole stuff. The plant itself will regulate which and how much of any mineral they need, trough the help of the microbes in the soil, which themselves lives around the roots of the living plants. 1. There should always be a living plant in the soil. 2. Mulch as much as you can, feed the microbes, protect the soil from the sunlight and hold moisture back. 3. Don't till the soil, so the soillife can establish itself.
It would be interesting to see samples taken at different times of year. For example before planting crop and post harvest. Thanks for the video, I came across your idea/ video a few years back and because of that I pick up bags of leaves around the neighborhood and use that for my garden beds.
Yeah - It is really interesting to do this type of analysis. I was happy by how consistent the 'old garden' was, and the new garden might be explained that when I initially built it, I had placed compost on half of it only to check any depth measurement.
Years ago I collected bags of leaves my neighbors threw away. Max number was 140. Austin, TX soil had lots of caliche. Leaf mulch worked magic, along with compost. At 77 in a retirement community, I can’t handle the heavy work though I can hire someone to spread Soil3, a wonderful product we can get in the Carolinas, Georgia, and now Alabama. Expensive, but it makes major improvements to the clay in upstate SC. I mulch everything with pine nuggets to prevent weeds epidemic in new gardens. I can’t do everything I could when I was younger, but I can do somethings. Improving the soil is the priority.
This pretty well mirrors my experience in turning horrible clay that was concrete when dry and porridge when wet into a lovely dark soil where I couldn't turn a spading fork without finding earthworms munching away.
Great to see the numbers. It's easy to see the success, but having hard numbers is fun, too. And you're right about not needing to weed. I've never seen anything like how leaves stop the infiltration of unwanted plants, and I really don't have any explanation for it. Maybe it's the pH level? Dunno, but I love not having to scramble around pulling weeds! The only problem I'm having now, is that the organic matter needs to build up significantly more to slow the drainage on my slope where I've tried to get some native plants established. The ground is so sandy and hydrophobic that water either runs through it, or down across the top, underneath the leaves. I've never seen anything like it, honestly, but it does explain why the Burford Holly I have there is performing so poorly compared to the hollies planted on the opposite side that has better soil. I had hoped that adding some Panicum virgatum to the top of the slope would help as the roots worked their magic and burrowed down. Sadly, they appear to be stunted and didn't put out any inflorescences this year. I know you're supposed to baby the stuff for it's first year, but I didn't think I'd need to do daily waterings. I missed a few times as life got in the way, and the hot SC summer seems to have worked a number on the poor things. Even butterfly milkweed didn't do well in the bed, and it's supposed to love austere conditions! Maybe next Spring. Maybe I should fork the sandy soil and get some of that leaf matter down deeper where it can help to hold moisture better. I'll play around and see what happens. The good news is that the bed looks fantastic even without anything growing in it. Neat and clean and tidy, with a nice mulch layer on top to create that uniform look folks can appreciate. This Autumn, I'll be expanding that bed and hope to get the entire hillside done similarly.
Hi - I think the weed prevention is just a physical thing. I'm pretty sure the seeds (that don't need sunlight) will germinate and just can't poke through the mat. Improving drainage on a slope can be really tough. There are a few things I would try to help it. The leaves are great at slowing the water down, so that should greatly help. But once you get your switchgrass going the problem should be solved. There are a couple other types that might help to, and they can establish pretty quick - Side Oats Grama and Purpletop. The seed is dirt cheap if you buy it by the ounce from Roundstone or Everwilde. But it definitely sounds like have a unique situation on that slope.
@@growitbuildit Thanks for the ideas. I like to say that nobody has a "hell strip" like I've got a "hell strip"! Full sun, right next to some pavement, with sandy soil that is equal parts hydrophobic and fast-draining, and a slope to make sure the water gets away as fast as possible! 😁 The switch grass is still alive, just really hurting. Buying gallon pots was a good idea since they were strong and mature when they got stuck in last autumn, but this was their first full Southeastern summer all on their own and I really should have watered them more regularly. My Penn Sedge didn't fair too well, either, but I hope this winter will help them recover. Live and learn. I was really hoping that the tougher natives would do well and look like what you see all over the internet. Every site's different though, so I'm hopeful that their second year in the ground will give me better performance. Next on the list of things to try will be Frog Fruit as a potential lawn substitute.....
@@threeriversforge1997 Some other possibilities....Blue Grama, Pink Muhly, or Buffalo Grass. The Blue Grama and Buffalo probably aren't native to you, but they grow pretty well in the badlands of South Dakota......
Still has compact clay soil down at 12 inches... hire a local farmer to come over and turn-over the soil deeper with a spade, add some white sand too! 😀
Did you have any videos of this years tomatoes and peppers to see how this years leaves made them look. Please continue making these videos its my yearly excitement for your updates!
You're interested in how the tomatoes looked, as in size and form? I can check and post some private clips. But this video has footage of this years peppers. The intro, and the 'how to smoke' section are from this year. I still have hot peppers growing too. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kxcafFX2brE.html
This is really interesting and revealing! Thank you. Just wondering if you could extend your experiment next year to one patch where you put on compost and no leaf mulch?
I am quite happy that youtube suggested this video for me. I saw one of your previous ones, and I found it cool. This reminds me to restock on leaves. 3 years ago I got a lot from my neighbours, and put it in storage thinking I'll get some earth replacement. I didn't use everything right then, so out of 15 bags I still have like 5-6, but it was quite so nice not to have to buy all that earth. I am really planning to make some raised beds next spring, so I will probably store some more leaves in order to fill it quick and cheap. Thank you for your work. Do you chop the leaves before mulching with it ? If so, how ? Do you have some leave shredder ?
Hi - I have mowed up my leaves before applying them as mulch one time. It didn't seem to add any benefits, so I have not done it since. The microbes and worms in your soil will do all the work for you - and the leaves are pretty much gone by October.
I love what you are doing and sharing! I have a similar approach and have had great results in yield. I have one question. The last couple of years I have had struggles with pests, specifically cucumber beetles. Admittedly, I need to rotate my cucurbits a bit more. I have not planted them in the same exact area each year, but probably not far enough away from the previous years location. Regardless, I am wondering if by constantly providing leaf mulch, am I "harboring" beetle eggs over the winter and suffering the consequences during the growing season. Have you noticed any increase in pest activity in your garden since you have started this process?
Hi - I haven't noticed too much of an increase in pests....but since I started growing cabbages I did notice a lot of slugs. And I started using beer traps to counteract the slugs. For cucumber beetles, I generally don't have too much of a problem. Now, I have all manner of pests, and I have a lot of squash bugs that are likely hiding in the leaf mulch. The thing is, I don't want for food even with them attacking my plants. The same goes for cucumber beetles. Now, I do have a large number of predatory insects around, mostly wasps, dragon flies, robber flies, etc. This is because I have a large meadow near my veggie garden which has all manner of flower, that attracts just about everything.
Excellent update. If you are interested in the nutrients in the compost you use vs leaf mulch your local ag extension office/State ag school probably has a compost test available. Could be interesting to compare and get a better idea where your nutrients are coming from. I'm also surprised the test kit you used didn't measure Nitrogen, but maybe I missed it, or maybe they have a good reason not to. Probably don't want people over reacting and burning their gardens.
Hi - I may have to try that w/ the local ag extensions for composting. They are definitely cheaper, but cost a lot more. They didn't measure nitrogen since the amounts are fairly unstable. Because it transfers in soil so quickly, whatever they measured today would not be relevant by Spring.
I got some free cut-off wood from sawmills for firewood, and I strip the bark off that and add it to my garden, should help create some acidity in your soil
I appreciate the update - this multiyear project has been a pleasure to follow. My question this year is whether you're planning any nitrogen supplementation? Presumably added nitrogen usually comes from your compost, and you likely have a some extra bound up in soil biology. Also, the C/N ratio of leaves can vary a lot by species from, say, redbuds (more N) to oak (low N). I'm curious if you see any nitrogen tie-up next year absent the compost. Or maybe use something like field peas to supplement N without adding more P/K?
Hi - when I plant seedlings out, I generally will add a handful of compost when backfilling. But in the first 3 years, I never top-dressed the entire garden, and those years had huge plants. But the main species of leaves I'm adding are sugar and silver maple, as that is what my neighbors are throwing away.
That is very interesting. I wonder if all the nutrients are completely available to your plants, or whether they are bound via the organic matter? Unlike adding synthetic, highly concentrated and bioavailable chemical nutrients.. I know that worms free up massive amounts of phosphorus in the soil, so there may be information from commercial outfits. If you had too much, your plants would be suffering. I postulate that the method of nutrient release would be different in your system vs fertiliser application. It would be a good investigation for your local university. Your soil looks awesome. I might attach a photo of my dad’s leaf pile, built up over 30 years in a small macadamia orchard grown in solid gravel. Roleystone, Western Australia. Enjoyed your video very much! ❤
Thank you Cindy - I'm glad you enjoyed it. When it comes to how plants uptake the nutrients, and when mineralization occurs, it can get quite complicated. Add in the factors that it would likely require significantly more testing, and it becomes somewhat cost prohibitive. I agree with your hypothesis that since the nutrients are naturally broken down, this will be much better form of phosphorus than a dumping of straight synthetically produced phosphorus. It is quite possible that the presence of humus and other compounds negate some of the ill-effects that can occur from over-fertilization. I generally think that nature is a complex system, dependent on many factors and interactions. The phosphorus question alone shows this, as the graph I displayed showing what P will mineralize with (if at all) can change significantly with pH of the soil. Moreso we tend to look at many nature-related things as single variable problems, when often they are not.
@@growitbuildit i ran that expierament on over a thousand coffee trees. For over a year. My belief is that micro elements are not represented enough hence you would get more robust set. That is the termites produce a steady stream of processed material with fugus then complete process. Fugus I think of as one vast organisim. It actually has no end. So we feed it. Instead feeding root we feed the fugus and fugas feed our plants. There is more unknown then is known here,some plants may have special relationships to fugus.
Have you found the level of your soil going up at all? Charles Dowding does no dig beds, and plants directly into compost, very successfully. I think he grows his seeds in compost, then transfers into more compost. All that to say that I feel like if you kept on with your current method, you'd be fine. However I am neither a biologist, nor am I a soil scientist :). Feels like you've found a faster way to get to old growth forest soil.
Hi - the level of my soil is unchanged since I built my garden. The organic matter breaks down and goes deeper into my soil via natural processes. And yes, I believe you are correct in that this is a short-cut to really amazing soil.
Before using an online business for soil testing, check to see if your county or state has free soil testing as part of the department of agriculture cooperative extension office. Counties in my state (Kentucky) have cooperation extensions that offer free soil testing for residents.
Mine has a $10 fee, plus you pay shipping, and the results take a while to get back. But if you're doing a lot, this would be more cost effective. Especially if you could drop it off (my county office is about 30 min away)
Leaves alone shouldn't have much NPK value, as trees pull back nutrients before the leaves drop off. It's likely mulch made from green plant matter that is adding P and K.
They are about 0.4% by weight on average for both P & K. I just figure the volume that I've put on has had the effect. As the plant size/yield has always been huge, even the first couple years when I didn't top-dress with compost.
Did you ever had issues with rats residing in your leaf piles ? I started composting recently and came to know that there was a rat family in the bottom of the pile which has discouraged me to continue with composting for next year. I do have to admit that I had not touched/turned the pile for about 4 months and that could be the reason why rats thought its safe place to stay.
I've never had rodent problems with leaf piles. But I could see where that could be a problem. Normally my leaves compact from 12" down to 4" by Dec/Jan. I supposed that if you had a large pile they would definitely want to move in.
What is your worm count in the soil? The little critters give organic nutrients a buffering that I don't quite understand but all my containers shrink in volume. They get topped of with leaf mold and mulch a few times a season and the worms are shockingly large for red worms. If it ain't broke keep using it.
I've never specifically 'counted' worms, but I've got loads of worms, pill bugs, and numerous other species that are in my soil. I was originally going to show a timelapse of the activity, and I filmed for it the day before, but then I noticed several birds hopping through my soil and eating the critters, so I showed that at the end...
I am dealing with sandy, highly alkaline soil (8.5 pH) here in the mountains of NW Wyoming that quickly dries out and then compacts like concrete, so I was a bit dismayed that your leaf mold raised the pH. I started adding sulfur this fall and had assumed that the cottonwood leaves would further increase the acidity. Hmm. Still planning to add the leaves and compost as the soil needs the humus and the leaves are free, but I'm wondering if what I'm doing is somewhat counterproductive. I'm certainly getting a lot more earthworms since I've been watering and amending the soil. Do you add any other fertilizer during the growing season?
Hi - i don't necessarily think the leaves are counter productive. You can buy one of those cheap pH meters too (I have one) and just take a sample that is sopping wet and check the pH. If your base soil is already 8.5, then I would wager that the composted leaves would be lower - somewhere in the 7's. So it probably isn't counterproductive from that standpoint. But you've got a tough situation out there if the base soil is in the 8's. For fertilizer, the only thing I will do is add a handful of compost with backfill when I transplant seedlings. Nothing else. So all the nutrients/fertility has been at zero cost for me, just my time. I probably wasn't too far from you this summer, as we vacationed in Yellowstone. We drove the Beartooth Highway and looped back to the park via Cody.
@@growitbuildit We're in the geological transition area off of Rt. 26. Beautiful country, but because of the thermal/volcanic history of the whole Yellowstone area the soil is seriously alkaline. I'm trying two things: 1) amend the soil naturally, and 2) live with it by identifying trees/plants that will tolerate a neutral to alkaline pH. I like the idea of building the soil over time and fertilizing just with compost. If it costs $10 to grow a tomato it's not worth the effort. I have a pH tester. I thought it wasn't working because every sample I put in was dark green on the scale. Hoping to see improvement over time. As for the pH of the leaves, last year I grew potatoes in containers filled with mostly leaves and a little potting soil. They did pretty well. This year I used potting mix and dirt and got almost nothing, so you are probably right about the lower pH. Anyway, hopeful. Thanks.
You gardens speak for them selves. However, soil is not about the chemistry, although this information is always good to know. It´s more to do with micro biology that creates the plant available nutrient in the first place.
I agree Bill, although I am glad I checked it. I will not stop piling leaves on unless all my plants died. The results and labor saving (no weeding) has just been too powerful.
For taking the samples? That would be a garden spade. They are available just about anywhere that sells digging tools. Here is a similar one (affiliate link) amzn.to/2QQFcwc
I don’t know if you have tested any root growing vegetables but have things like Radish and carrot increased in size due to much looser texture of the soil now?
You have gone above and beyond common crop production, and entered the biological realm. Forget chasing the 'nutrient/chemical' approach and focus on soil biology. As an example, look at Justus Von Liebigs ' law of the minimum', and 'Mulders chart'. This will highlight that the nutrient/chemistry approach is a unatainable. The O.M level is ideal, ignore the sample recomendation. Ignore the pH, the biology will manage that The amount of O.M you have can easily quadruple your garden area. Have a look at mutispecies cover cropping, and roller crimping, this is just large scale, by comparison to your operation. You have found the key to the best plant production method, good work
They actually don't test it, as it transfers in the soil so readily that even if they reported a value now, it wouldn't matter in Spring. In general, the suggested a certain amount of nitrogen per year, that would be consumed by a regular vegetable garden. But they did not check those levels, as they considered them non-value added.
If I raked all my leaves into my flowerbed what should I expect come May?Which is the start of my growing season. Will all the leaves be decomposed? Can my plants push through the leaf mulch?
Depends on what kind of leaves! Oak leafs are slow to break down. I can go into areas of dense oak leaf mulch and still find whole leaves from last year. Whereas my hackberry leaves break down very very quickly.
Hi - It depends how thick and possibly what kind, as Taylor said. I agree with here that oaks take the longest to break down. And if you take a hike in the woods in July/August, the only leaves on the ground you will see are oaks. But in general, all the leaves you put out now will be a thick, compacted mat. As far as what can penetrate them, well, I haven't actually used leaves on my flower bed. But I can tell you that I have asparagus that pushes through the leaf mulch in my vegetable garden. Now, I'm putting 6-12" of leaves down in the fall that will compress to a 4" mat. But each plant species is different, so you may need to test it. If you left your stalks up 6" or so you could make sure the perennials can push through in Spring. And it would also serve as a test to see if they can do it on their own.
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You kinda did the testing wrong. You wanna mix deep soil with surface soil. You only took surface soil, which in your case is a thick black humus layer so of course it's gonna be huge in terms of organic matter. But you gotta analyze it deeper too, around 30-50 cm. So I'm sorry to say that your analysis was kinda biased or incomplete. For example, a french farmer in a farm called Ferme de Cagnolle has been using deep wood chip mulching for around 12 years, and is followed by an agronomist. He went from 2% organic matter (he has alkaline clay that had been eroded by bad farming practices), and added a 30 cm thick layer of wood chips from the landfill (a mixture of all the area's tree pruning, so there is leaves, branches, trunks, and some grass clipping occasionnally). He renewed that every couple of years and now is at 8.5 % organic matter or so. So the 15-18% organic matter is not accurate I believe, it's like you measured an almost pure pile of leaf compost. This is also why the levels of NPK are through the roof. Of course it doesn't matter much, since most of your veggies are growing in that top layer, and that's why they grow huge. Also, nutrient locked in organic matter don't wash away like in an eroded soil with fertilizers. So it's all good. This has been measured by an organisation called Maraîchage Sol Vivant in France, a collective of hundred of farms with similar practices (no tilling, deep mulch). Veggies were growing so fast they had to use dwarf cabbage or it wouldn't sell coz they were so big. But yeah, nitrogen was stable, it didn't leech into the soil in nitrate form, it stays in a nice organic form that's not harmful to the aquifers or rivers. Regarding the lawn, the issue isn't the lack of fertilizer/mulching. The issue is mowing. If you leave the grass alone to do its own business, or cut it like a prairie, once or twice a year and leave the clippings in place, you're gonna have a nice 5% organic matter soil. But mowing and removing the grass makes the soil poorer, more compacted, and more susceptible to nutrients washing away.
Hi - The company I used stated to take the sample from 2-6" deep, which is what I did. I wiped away any small pieces of leaf litter and took a scoop straight down. So, I believe that I did the test correctly. When doing the test though, I did have the idea that perhaps it would be interesting to take samples at different depths. I may do this, but I don't want to spend the money to do so! But thank you for that info regarding the Maraichage Sol Vivant. I may try to look that up and translate it. For the lawn, I do actually leave all my grass clippings. My lawn mower mulches them up and they stay right where they fall. The big issue with compaction in lawn soil is that the turf grass roots can't go beyond 5cm, so the lack of organic matter. Also, my house is 23 years old, and it would have had construction equipment all over bare soil during the construction process, so the compaction was established then, and continues under the grass since there isn't any organic matter beyond 5 cm.
@@growitbuildit I bet the company never had to deal with someone that has a 20-25 cm layer of humus :D For most gardens, yeah that depth is fine. But I too have a thick layer of humus after 6 years of deep mulching with wood chips, and the test would be skewed if I took the sample exclusively from that layer.
Now stop...for the next 10 years. At this point you only need to add *ONLY* nitrogen (maybe) and just keep growing plants! Only need to keep an eye on the humidity into the "soil" (almost soilless now) and you can also grow the plants much closer one to another. Again 2 things: 1. Keep an eye on the humidity 2. Keep the other eye on the nitrogen
I think you did a wonderful job with this video. But I wanna point out that you’re using essentially a conventional chemical input thought process for an organic biological experiment. And over abundance of phosphorus is only a problem through adding chemical phosphorus. I wouldn’t worry whatsoever about adding too much compost or leaves. What you are essentially doing is super charging your microorganism habitat.
I believe you are correct. Although I think I'll do well with just leaves this year, at least on the old garden. I'll probably still toss a handful of compost into holes that I transplant into, but I see no reason to stop what I've been doing.
You say to not sweat it if I can't make the 50/50 ratio of green/brown. But what if what I have is more like 5/95? I just moved to a home with a yard (first for me in decades) that has zero lawns, the ground is clay, lots of small rocks and soil so poor that weeds" hardly grow. And since it's October, those are all brown. There are two fruit bearing trees and two that are non-fruit bearing. The landlord recently did some major trimming of one of the non-fruit bearing trees which has only provided firewood, kindling and brown leaves. That 5% green comes from my kitchen. I purchased a tumbler for composting waste in a way that does not attract rats etc (I assume that dumping fresh food on the ground surely would). I've added some brown and a bit of bare earth and plan to add this tumbler's contents to the yard waste compost pile after it's had a few weeks to age. I have tons of "brown" - cardboard and sawdust in addition to a lot of leaves from many trees and shrubs in the yard but no sources for green. Any suggestions for how I might gather "green" from places other than this home lot? PS, Nobody grows lawns anymore. Eternal drought here in California plus too darn expensive in time and money.
Well, even 5/95 will break down, but it will be fungi that does it, and it will take a long time (but I wouldn't put a pile of cardboard out). I would suggest trying to hit up starbucks for coffee grounds. I have built hot piles with 15-20 bags of used grounds, and most locations will give them out as a policy. That would be your easiest, best bet for a large amount of green material. I store the bags until I'm ready to use them.
