Leaves Collected for Compost
Photos: 11 December 2024
Text: 24 May 2025
Looking back, it seems I haven't reported on the annual autumn period of leaf clearance. I'm yet to check if I have unused photographs from previous years of the task in progress. It wasn't until I mentioned compost on my Mastondon account and doubled my followers overnight that it occurred to me people might be interested in the topic.
At this point we are more than half way through the clearance season, although last year everything was very late, presumably because of the very wet season that kept the leaves on the trees for much longer than usual. (At some point I'll check through my photographs and add more posts on this site to keep the story complete.)
We start this report after I'd already part filled part filled the bag designed to hold a ton of sand or gravel with leaves found in the front garden. I'd cleared leaves on the path behind the house the previous day and was now just beyond the bridge to the island beside the Retaining Wall built in February 2022.
It's 11:44 and the leaves on what used to be thought of as "The Boat Dock" had been raked together and were ready to be put into the big white bag on the barrow.
Five minutes later I'm by the wire cages where the leaves were being taken. There are three of them, each capable of taking around 2.4 cubic yards of leaves. The two closest to the camera are already half full with leaves collected earlier in the season. The furthest away is half empty. I put it like that as the contents are two or three years old and have already been used to top up the raised bed nearby.
Beyond the Boat Dock the grass has always been reluctant to grow and there are few leaves present to be raked together.
The next area where the leaves accumulate is in "The Dip" half way along our western boundary.
It's midday as after clearing the dip our almost resident pair of swans decide to leave the lake and cross the freshly cleared path.
The dyke between our ground and the Poor's Allotment is unusually full of duck weed this year, but both swans take to the water, not to be seen for a few days.
After the goodbyes to the swans it's back to work as the path beyond The Dip is still to be cleared.
A quarter of an hour later most of the path beyond The Dip has been cleared...
...Indeed it's clear right up to the final few yard to The Manna
With the entire path cleared the third cage is now full to overflowing...
...while the contents of the second have sunk nicely as they begin to rot.
Before returning to the house for lunch, at 12:34, you can see I have begun to clear the leaves from the area we call "The Wildflower Meadow", although the area also contains the raised beds and fruit trees.
