Leafmould and Mulch
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As well as making compost, you can also make leafmould, and you can use material as a mulch. Botyh of these methods mimic whatr nature does :-



Mulch
Mulch.
If you go into deep woodland, you will find the ground carpeted with old leaved and fragments of branches that have broken down and become soil.

Many people buy bark, and put a layer 3" deep on the beds in their garden, and this suppresses weeds, which cannot take root at the surface, and deeper weed seeds have insufficient light to grow. However, if you use a shredder or chipper to break up your prunings, then this works equally well as a mulch.

The mulch will suppress weeds, but it will break down and decay to become soil after about 5 years


Leafmould

 

Leafmould
All the fallen leaves in the woods eventually break down to become a rich loam, with wonderful fertility and water retention proporties.
However, it takes 3 to 5 years to make "natural leafmould". Sooner than that, the leaves should not be dug into the soil as they are very "brown" and will rob nitrogen from your plants as they break down.
People often fill a wire mesh container with leaves, but the leaves break into fragments and blow away as they dry, so the yield is poor
Nowadays, we can fill a builder's sack with leaves - the fragments will not blow away, and they will be kept moist (though check on this !). Leafmould develops best when there is pressure (like the layers on a forest floor) so we can fill more plastic sacks with leaves and cover the top of the sack with these. Add more sacks as the level sinks under the pressure. Add free nitrogen - 1 pint urine to 1 gallon water for a full builder's sack

We are not sure yet if the leafmould will be ready in 1 year or 1.5 years - watch here for more information !!

Also, if you are having problems with your heap, try our online Compost Troubleshooter