How to make black leaf mulch
HOW TO MAKE BLACK LEAF MULCH
Leaves that fall in and around your landscape are a valuable natural resource that can be used to provide a good source of organic matter for your permaculture farm. By adding leaf mulch to your beds or incorporating them into your soil you will increase the water holding capacity of the soil, avoid moisture evaporation, limiting soil erosion and encouraging benefitial soil life. It is important to know that leaf mold is considered to be a soil conditioner. It does not supply the plants with nutrients like compost does, rather, it improves soil structure and soil life by inviting earthworms.
Making leaf mulch is ridiculously easy. First, you need to collect any fallen autumn leaves from around your garden. If you dont have a big enough garden or enough decidous trees you can always collect dry fallen leaves from a park near you. Try avoiding leaves from a high traffic area.
If you have a lawnmower run over the the leaves a few times to shed to them. This will help them to decompos faster. If you dont have a lawnmower then a shedder will do just fine. Then you will want to make some find of wire mesh container to keep them them or even bags if you dont have any wire mesh.
Leaf mold is a form of compost made of leaves alone. As opposed to regular compost, the breakdown process is done by fungus instead of bacteria so the process takes much longer than regular compost. This is because leaves are basically all carbon, they contain almost no nitrogen. Keep your pile moist throughout the decomposting period and you will be graced with beautiful black leaf mulch.