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Leaves of Gold - Page 2

© Traute Klein, biogardener

If we are to keep soil at its current fertility, we must return to it what plants take out of it and what is leached out. To improve soil, however, we have to do better than that. I simply ask my neighbors for all those bags of compostables which they would otherwise dispose of, grass clippings, garden wastes, and dried leaves. Especially leaves! They contain the trace minerals which have been leached from the topsoil by unnecessary watering.

Tree roots reach down into the subsoil to return these leached minerals which are dissolved in water. Those minerals eventually are deposited in the leaves as they fall from the trees in autumn. By returning the leaves to the soil, we enrich it with vital missing ingredients.

Immunity to Pests and Diseases

Leaves give the soil more roughage than any other compostable matter. It is this roughage which makes the soil water-retentive, giving it the ability to survive floods as well as droughts. It is the basis for healthy soil. A healthy person has natural immunity to disease. In the same way, healthy soil is immune to pests and diseases which thrive on inferior soil. And enriched soil certainly makes digging so much easier.

Garden centers sell bails of peat moss for gardeners to add to their soil. True, peatmoss does give the soil roughage which makes it water-retentive, but it does not contain most of the needed trace elements which healthy plants require. They probably have been leached out of the peat bogs centuries ago. Peat moss makes financial sense to the gardening center, but it does not make health sense to the gardener, and it does not make environmental sense to the peat bog.

My gardening secret? Treat those leaves like treasures and bury your treasures in your garden!

Soil Test

I planted potted strawberries last Saturday, and I did not need an implement to dig a hole. I merely lifted some soil with my bare hand and set the root balls into the hole. And this used to be prairie gumbo! That's what all those bags of leaves have done for my soil.

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