Gathering leaves out of the woods
With the driveway still
impassable and the blueberries in need of mulch, I decided to
rake some leaves out of the woods. I'd been eying a spot
on the southwest corner of our property for years since beech and oak
leaves accumulate there in deep drifts. I figured the most
time-consuming portion of leaf gathering was the gathering part, so I
headed to my remembered spot with our two huge chicken waterer mailing bags.
The leaf drifts didn't
disappoint. In fact, I scared a flock of turkeys who had gathered
on 
the hillside for a similar
reason (although they were scratching through the leaves for
invertebrates rather than snagging the leaves themselves.) In a
matter of minutes, I had stuffed both bags so full they were bulging
against the seams. Then I picked one up...
...Or rather, tried to pick one up. Who
knew that a bag full of compacted leaves would be so heavy? With
a bag on each shoulder, I struggled up to the top of the hill, and then
ended up dragging the leaves back down the other side. (Not good
for the bags --- I won't be repeating that part, but no way was I going
to leave my organic matter behind.)
The
last third of the way was on level ground with lots of logs to cross,
so I had to leave one bag behind and come back for it later. As I
walked through the woods closer to home, I noticed smaller drifts, and
resolved that my next leaf gathering expedition would be here ---
clearly I was wrong about raking being the most time-consuming part of
the project.
But I forgot all the
pain and agony as I spilled leaves out onto my blueberry patch.
Each big bag held the equivalent of at least four of the trashbags full
of leaves Mom gathered for me on the curb. Since I've lined
each blueberry bed in logs, I have high hopes the
leaves will stay put (rather than blowing away), and I'm sure my
blueberries will enjoy the the dose of micronutrients.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Gathering leaves is one of my favorite things to do in the fall and winter. I have two "jumping barrels" made of fabric with a wire spring. When you unbutton the clasp at the bottom, they "jump" out to shape. Then I use my winnowing basket and a rake. The basket is the perfect size and shape- like a huge dustpan. Then I just tip the leaves in the barrel and carry it home by its convenient handles.
Last year I wasn't able to gather leaves, but hopefully this year will be better.
We used one of those "jumping barrels" a few years ago. It was fun, but not as good as my duffel bag --- harder to mash the leaves in and much harder to carry by hand.
It's probably not too late to gather some leaves if you want some....
Fascinating question! I usually don't gather bracket fungi because --- unlike most fungus fruiting bodies --- they can live for decades rather than just spreading spores and withering up quickly. So I figure it's more equivalent to cutting down a tree than to plucking an apple.
That said, if you have bracket fungi for some reason, I'd probably consider them woody and maybe add them to a hugelkultur mound.
OMmmmmmmmmmmmm Got to love O.M. (organic matter)! I wonder if you've got some good mycorrhizae in those leaves. Mycorrhizae has been popping up in nurseries and garden stores out here in the west, but my hort. teacher says the best way to get it is to gather leaves.
Denis - I did gather pine needles for the blueberries our first year --- they're definitely a great acidifying agent/mulch. Unfortunately, we only have a couple of pine trees on the property, and they're at the top of a steep hill. So I just couldn't talk myself into going back for such a small reward...
Paula B --- One of the bags was heavier than the other because I ended up getting more of the decomposing leaves below the top layer. You can smell the actinomycetes in that duff, so I'm sure it's chock full of mycorrhizae. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much it'll help the blueberries --- they team up with an unusual kind of mycorrizae that doesn't live under forest trees. But when I gather more leaves for our fruit trees, I'm sure the mychorrizae will be a bonus.