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Now is time to get in the garden and collect leaves which are falling from the trees. They are a fantastic resource which you should not waste as it can be used through tout your garden.

So what do you do when you have collected the leaves? In the past gardeners used to burn the leaves and then add the ash on to their gardens. Burning is something which the authorities discourage us to do these days, I think because of issues surrounding global warming but that does not make sense as they still release their carbon when they rot. I know the last time I have a large fire in my year, the smoke made driving difficult on the nearby road so that is maybe a better reason not to burn them.

The reason you should keep them is to provide your garden and plants with a useful, and free, food and conditioner. Adding well rotted leaf mould to your soil will help it build up its strength and develop the humus content as well. In other words you are developing the food soil web and feeding the soil rather then the plant. Your plants will take the food they need from the soil.

The easiest way of collecting the leaves is mechanically using a leaf vacuum which will shred the leaves as it is collecting them or run over them with a mower on a high setting which will collect and shred the leaves. The old fashioned but much more health way is to rake them up using a leaf rake.

Once you have collected the leaves simply leave them to rot down. You can stuff them into black bin bags and pierce several times with a fork or put them in special net bags to rot down. If you have the space and enough leaves you may find that you have a hollow in your garden which you can fill with leaves but I find the best way is to build a leaf mould bin.

I have just built a new one and it took about 20 minutes. I knocked 4 stakes into the ground and then fastened chicken wire to the outside of the posts. It is roughly 3 foot square and 3 foot deep which gives a full cubic yard to fill with leaves and pack the leaves in well. That's it. Just leave the leaves for a year and just before you need the bin next year empty the leaves out. Use them as a mulch around the garden. The worms will work the leaf mould into the soil over the winter and help feed the soil and develop the humus content.

There is a lot more about gardening on the highdensitygardeninghomeHigh Density Gardening website.

Ric Wiley is an internet writer and gardener. His website about High Density Gardening can be found at highdensitygardeninghomehighdensitygardeninghome and his latest ebook is High Density Gardening.