How I Use Homemade Leaf Mold in My Garden

I have written before about how I make leaf mold in my garden. But today, I thought it would be useful to share how I use the leaf mold that I make since I have been asked about this a few times recently. I know that many are interested in making leaf mold but don't fully understand how it can be used.

I find that leaf mold is most useful in two main ways: as a soil amender or mulch and as a material for homemade potting mixes. These are my favorite ways to use leaf mold and return the nutrients it contains to my garden.

Using Leaf Mold As a Soil Amender or Mulch

The first way in which I use my homemade leaf mold is as organic matter to improve the soil or build healthy soil in growing areas. As a type of partially decomposed organic matter, leaf mold is akin to compost, though not precisely the same.

During the leaf-mold-making process, after around a year, the leaves will have broken down into a crumbly material that I like to use as a mulch around trees and shrubs. The following year, I use it as a finer and less bitty mulch that is good for seedlings and tender young plants in my vegetable garden.

Use in Layering, Improving Soil Health

Leaf mold can be incredibly useful as an upper layer in a lasagna bed, hugelkultur bed, or mound—or in an area that has been sheet mulched for planting. Its texture and consistency mean that it can create a good plantable or sowable surface for plants or seeds.

Leaf mold used to top dress an area of a garden can improve the soil below as it is worked in by the agency of earthworms and other soil biota. There is no need to till or dig in your organic matter, and in my experience, no dig systems lead to a much healthier soil ecosystem over time. And as I am sure everyone is aware, healthier soil means healthier plants.

Anecdotally, I have noted increased mole activity in areas of my garden where a mulch of leaf mold has been applied, which I believe to be due to the presence of more earthworms in these areas.

This is one way in which applying mulch can potentially help areas prone to, or suffering from, compaction. Of course, my own observations are specific to where I live. However, many others experience similar positive impacts when applying leaf mold in other regions.

Using Leaf Mold in Homemade Potting Mix

The other primary way in which I use leaf mold is as a key ingredient in my homemade potting mix. I make a potting mix that is useful for a wide range of different container plants by mixing:

• 1/3 by volume loamy soil
• 1/3 homemade compost
• 1/3 leaf mold

Leaf mold is a good, sustainable alternative for vermiculite. It can retain water well while also allowing for good aeration within a potting mix. It is a material that very effectively balances aeration and moisture content within the pot or other container.

Whenever I leave leaf mold out of my pots and containers, either when sowing seeds or when potting up plants for a longer-term container garden, I have found that the mixes have not been quite as effective.

Once the potting mix is spent, it can then simply be tipped out of the containers it filled onto areas of the garden that could do with some mulch. Though the mix, once used, will no longer contain the same level of nutrients it once did, it can still help to retain soil moisture and improve soil texture over time when it is used to top dress the soil in a garden.