" Tuuk" wrote in message
...
I know, off topic but I do get good advice from this group. I will take the
mud slinging,,, hope it is mixed in with your regular good information.


I have a back yard garden, I live in Southern Ontario Canada. I roto till
it and we grow vegetables like tomato, peppers,

My friends were telling me I should mix in some leaves, my garden is about
20 feet by 20 feet.

I collected about 50 big bags of grinded up leaves and roto tilled them
all into my garden. Very light and fluffy now and soft and full of broken
down leaves, mostly Maple Leafs and some other varieties.

My question is what should I do? Should I mix in manuer? or furtalizer?
Should I do something with this mixture now? Will it be ok on its own
after a few years ? will these leaves breakdown on their own? should I put
more leaves in? I think 50 bags is a lot.

Any advice or tips is much appreciated. Thank you 73s



Compost. It's one of the best "soil amendments" you can have. A composter
can be built for a few dollars but you have to attend to it with moisture,
aeration and/or tumbling. Google for "homemade composter" and see what
others have built. Properly composted material will resemble ashes or dirt,
depending on the texture of your source plants.

The leaves will eventually break down on their own and sort of
"self-compost" but you can speed the process with a little work. Mix in the
compost and it replaces some fertilizers.

Garden centers all sell soil test kits. The results of a test will suggest
whether you need supplimental fertilizers.

Manure can be acidic and may do more harm than good. If you compost it,
too, it will be less acidic.

Sal