leaf mould

Work has begun to clear grass from the nest and line the cup with peaty leaf mould.

QIS there any way to speed up my leaf mould pile into compost?

However, you'll probably need up to two years to make good leaf mould.

OUR EXPERT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS QIS there any way to speed up my leaf mould pile into compost?

Collect leaves to make leaf mould. It can be used in potting compost and as mulch.

Made mostly of lignin (wood), the leaf skeleton can take a year to break down and needs plenty of air, which is why we make leaf mould in wire baskets or net sacs.

- Jane Johnson, by email AYES, you can apply a decent surface covering - a couple of inches should do it - of chipped bark or composted leaf mould now.

If you want to grow it, give it fertile soil with extra home-made compost and/ or leaf mould. Happy Christmas.

add atop layer of bark chips, leaf mould, garden manure etc - nature hates a vacuum and will happily fill gaps with weeds.

MULCH MARVEL OUR leaf mould heaps provide us with barrows full of the stuff and if we stack the leaves in an open framework made of pig wire (like giant chicken wire), within a year it has broken down and become black and crumbly.

Though the leaves would eventually turn themselves into leaf mould, planting here is intense and the ground is filled with special woodlanders, many of which might drown underneath deep layers of leaves.

When the leaves start falling, rake them up and stick them in bin liners with ventilation holes in them to make leaf mould.