Some fertilizers may help a particular plant grow, but the ingredients are not always environmentally friendly. Foliage, on the other hand, is completely natural and will not harm your garden. There is even an advantage for you: you save a lot of time by simply leaving the leaves on the beds.
Leaf compost is a great fertilizer!
How does fertilizing with leaves work?
A layer of foliage offers numerous small microorganisms a protected habitat. These feed on the foliage and decompose it in this way. The leaves are converted into humus, which spreads in the soil. Thus, foliage enriches the earth through a completely natural process.
Make fertilizer from leaves
- Fill the foliage into sacks.
- Add some compost accelerator.
- This natural remedy contains fungi and bacteria that promote decomposition.
- Also add horn or stone flour.
- In this way you increase the nutrient content.
- seal sacks.
- Poke small holes in the bags for ventilation.
- After 8 to 12 weeks, the foliage will have decomposed into garden soil that you can use as fertilizer.
Pay attention to what?
Since decomposed foliage is a 100% natural remedy, you're unlikely to harm your plants with an overdose. Even so, you should not store all of the foliage on the compost heap. In order to maintain the ecosystem, it is important that it consists of no more than 20% rotted leaves. If the proportion of leaves on the compost heap predominates, the efficiency when using it as a fertilizer is reduced. This is because the trees withdraw nearly all of their nutrients into the trunk before they shed their leaves. Only the addition of organic waste makes the foliage rich in nutrients and therefore valuable for your plants.
In addition, no moisture must form on the compost heap, as moisture leads to mold.