Composting Leaves Helps Maintain Nutrients And Minerals For Yard

Autumn leaves on the ground serve as a good time to start a composting pile.

Putnam County Solid Waste Program Manager Lisa Luck said composting is an easy process, and anyone can do it. She said to start with four wooden pallets and put the leaf pile in the middle, and mother nature will take care of the rest.

“What happens when you put the leaves in a plastic bag is it takes the air, the plastic keeps it from having airflow, and they start rotting and they release methane gas into the atmosphere,” Luck said. “So it’s better to let them just rot right inside your yard and you can contain them.”

Luck said keeping the leaves in your yard also keeps the vitamins and minerals from trees in the yard itself. She said the key to a good composting pile is to use a good food waste-to-brown debris ratio.

Luck said using food waste will also attract various outdoor animals already present in the area, like raccoons or possums. She said the animals searching for the food waste will help maintain the compost pile naturally.

“Otherwise you can layer it, and if it looks too wet you can add more leaves to it,” Luck said. “And if it looks too dry, you can add some water to it but you want to be careful because if it gets too soggy it can start to rot.”

Luck said composting leaves is also good for gardens. She said the gardener can take a layer of compost leaves over their gardens to prepare the ground with nutrients for the coming spring planting season. She said once gardeners plant their seeds, they can put the compost leaves back down and use it as protection.