A (leaf) mouldy pledge

I couldn’t think of anything more poetic for this post. Must have been the exertions with the rake addling my brain. An exquisitely sunny November day: and the afternoon has been spent raking and bagging up piles of leaves.   (In case you were wondering, the morning was spent painting doors – three down, two to go.)

This is the one resource that this farm has no lack: leaves.   So I am going to put them to use.   Leaf mould.   Apparently they are a great soil conditioner if you leave the leaves to rot in a wire cage for a year. Or two years if you are a chestnut leaf.

I have already filled the wire cage behind the stables with bags and bags of mulberry leaves collected laboriously from the courtyard.

Next up was to pick up the cherry leaves that are carpeting the car right up at our secondary car park. (The land near the house is filled with builders’ vehicles.)   And then it was a mere twinkle down to the first terrace to have a go at the cherries near the shed.   Warm work, but it will be all grist to the mill. Once I have made a wire cage behind the shed.

The lawn area under the birch tree didn’t yield as many leaves as I had hoped, but it will help the lawn over the winter.