Leaf Composting

The trees are getting naked and dropping free mulch all over the yard. Driving around town today, I saw enough leaf bags to build a Great Wall. I am going to corral my leaves in the back corner of my yard over the winter so that they'll be ready to mix into garden beds in the spring.

My house is at the end of a circle drive and the backyard narrows down to a wedge on one side. There is a Crape Myrtle in front of the corner and a lot of trees overshadowing the area, too.  It's a terrible place to grow anything, but an excellent place to store some decomposing leaves. I had some wire fencing left over from a previous yard project so I used it to close in the corner to make a leaf bin. I nailed the wire to the wood fence by tacking in nails about halfway in, then bending them over the wire like a staple.  I don't have a staple gun for the job, but I do have plenty of nails and a fondness for using a hammer.  The fence took all of ten minutes to install.

Unused corner of the yard

Same corner with wire nailed in front of it.

Ta-Da! Leaf composting!

The wedge part of my yard used to be the dog pen, but my dog is bigger than the dog who previously resided here. My dog stays in the main part of the backyard. The wedge is my reserved garden space where I can build prototype contraptions and not worry about the dog going Godzilla on them. Also, I value a duty-free zone for my food crops and the ability to farm with clean shoes.