how can I make my fallen leaves to decompose faster?

Question

I do my own yard work, and I know all the cut grass and fallen leaves eventually can turn into soil .I think this is a good way to help the enviroment, but it takes a long time. does anybody know a way to speed up the process?

Answer 1

First shred the leaves. If you can shred the grass clippings as well, great. The smaller the piece size, the faster it will decompose.

Make sure you have your proportions right for compost, keep it moist, not wet, take the temperature daily and when it climbs and starts to fall, turn the pile inside out, remoisten and let it cook some more. Adding a handful or so of nitrogen fertilizer often speeds up a slow compost pile.

Careful monitoring of temperature and turning to add oxygen and mix the material makes a pile decompose faster.

You can also mix the material into dark plastic bags and let it decompose in the bag. It is anerobic decomp......it really stinks, but does work quickly. Just hold your nose when you open the bags and work the stuff into the soil immediately.

Have you seen the compost tumblers? These work quite well too.

Answer 2

Chopping them up by running over them with the lawn mower or using a shredder. Mixing them with the grass clippings will give you a good hot compost pile. I just cut the grass for the first time this spring on Sunday and there were still some leaves on the lawn. The stuff was added to my compost pile and it was probably 120 to 140 degrees in the pile when I checked it today, I couldn't keep my hand in there very long. Getting them small and mixing them with high nitrogen material is the way to go.

Answer 3

Mow the leaves up first before you try to compost them. The smaller pieces will break down a lot faster.

Answer 4

Composting works faster in the sun, make sure you water the pile too, and turn it ,also layering with green and brown helps.
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Answer 5

Make it a real compost pile by including potato peels and such.Rotate the pile to bury fresh peels.Egg shells,apple,rotten fruit/veg.

Answer 6

i usually put some 10-10-10 fertilizer on mine to speed it up just make sure u turn the compost every 2 weeks or so

Answer 7

Shred them

wet them
Pile them up

Drink a 6 pack and the P on them

Answer 8

Plus, add Rid-Ex and good old fashioned dirt.