Not tidying garden

Yes, few of the trees are in our garden. The main problem is out the front. We live in a tree lined avenue, forest trees: limes and chestnuts. The road runs east west and there is a long gravel access road that ends at our house with a brick wall gong across the access road.

As I said the access road goes east west,and is several hundred yards tree lined yards long, the prevailing winds are westerly and the wall is at the eastern end, so all the leaves get blown down the road and pile up our side of the brick wall. So we have to clear them up - or leave them, which is notr eally an option.

I feel tired just reading the comments here😂
Am glad for a change, that I only have a back yard to clear up with some pots in it.
I like the sound of the mice enjoying the cosy leaves.🐭🐭🍃

When we first moved in and the trees were much smaller we used to just put all the leaves in black bin bags and pile them up for a year. That didn't work too well, oak leaves don't decompose quickly. So we put them through the shredder to break them down first, which worked a bit better. The next year we shredded them then left them for two years, which worked very well. But by that time we had ten black bags to store each year so we piled them as well as we could near the shed and ended up with rats and mice setting up home over the Winter in the nice warm leaves. We did see a fox nestled down occasionally, which was nice, but the bags had to go because of the rats and mice. We still shred a few bags and leave them to rot in the garden each year. Then there are the acorns and the hazel nuts to gather up, and next year all the digging out of oak trees and hazels ... I'll never buy a house again with so many trees near by.

I bought special leaf composter sacks last year.They seem to be made of some kind of hessian, eco friendly any way and should turn leaves into compost in 6-12 months. So I filled several sacks with leaves and popped them behind my garage. Last week I thought I would see if they had turned to compost so I could move them to the vegetable plot. Not quite but lol when I went to move them the bottom of the bags fell apart. I now have a big pile of bits of hessian and almost leaf mould in a big heap behind the garage.

We have to take sacks of leaves for composting as well M0nica. It's all very well saying leave them if you don't have many but when you're surrounded by trees you could drown in leaves. We always leave them around the fence line under the shrubs, along with some piles of logs. We have two huge oak trees in our garden, one front and back, and another five or six nearby, as well as two silver birches, three or four hazels next door and a couple of large maples. We never tidy the rest of the garden until the Spring though.

I have loads of cyclamen ready to go into my windowboxes but I still have marigolds and petunias in flower.

Each year we take at least 10-15 big builder's sacks of leaves to the tip for composting. If we left them they would kill all the grass because it is smothered by them and it is far too much for us to compost.

Thankfully raking leaves in Autumn is my number one favourite garden task and it is worth it just to be surrounded by so many wonderful forest sized trees.

Battery leaf blowers pile leaves under shrubs and into borders.

I've persuaded my other half to not do his usual Autumn cutting back ( I call it his scorched earth policy!). I watched Gardeners World recently and there was a visit to a garden with a massive herbaceous border that they left untouched until the spring. Lots of seed heads and foliage for birds and insects which is so important. We will cut back our Cosmos when they have finished, we have had a wonderful display every year and they will last until the first frost but everything else will be left.

love it

The only thing I do is sweep up the Walnut ‘leaves’ they fall down still attached to a long stem so don’t rot down, they go into the Garden waste bin rather than the compost heap, as they can kill other plants.
There are plenty of berries and hips, seed heads for the wildlife in the garden. We also have Hedgehog houses behind the garage.
The dog spends hours sniffing out the field mice and voles, when she comes to stay, meanwhile the rabbits are running around behind her! Daft dog.

I have gravel paths so i sweep (a very soft brush works well). as many leaves as i can and throw them in my borders, lovely mulch and crawlies galore

Would love to see the still flowering plants in my garden but due to the terrible rain and winds over the past two weeks everything is covered in leaves. Can't see the grass and don't mention the borders, absolutely covered.

We have the remains of quite a big oak tree stump in our front garden and recently noticed that half of it looked like it had been eaten away. We were a bit worried that rats may have been gnawing at it but a tree surgeon assured us it was just insect damage. It's been there for about 10 years and I was surprised that it would degrade quite so quickly. He thinks we've probably got a family of stag beetles living in it amongst other things.

I cut the grass yesterday. That's it now, I won't touch the garden again till February. I normally prune roses and pick up fallen leaves from next doors tree, but this year I am going to leave the lot - it's a small way to help nature I suppose.
Not sure what I will face next spring mind.

Mostly tidied up here but I do put a thick layer of mulch down in at least half of the garden. That provides shelter for lots of tiny animals and the blackbirds and starlings love rootling through it.

Otherwise we have insect shelters. mostly built by various GC, all around and a thick layer of fallen leaves under the dense shrubbery.

I do garden with wildlife in mind but i am by nature tidy, so try to meet it halfway!

RosiesMaw

You use the terms fall and yard waste Norah
Are you American by origin or have spent much time there?

I can understand fall (leaves? 🍁🍂) but when Meghan Markle referred to the gardens of Lambeth Palace as a “back yard” I was gobsmacked!

We've spent time in America, my brother worked in NYC.

We've traditional gardens, but we also have the grounds apart from gardens. Fields/ yards all round - yard waste, limbs, trimmings, cones.

I'm not sure about Meghan's gardens?

You use the terms fall and yard waste Norah
Are you American by origin or have spent much time there?

I can understand fall (leaves? 🍁🍂) but when Meghan Markle referred to the gardens of Lambeth Palace as a “back yard” I was gobsmacked!

Yard waste and paint.

I say I’m leaving it for wildlife but in all honesty it’s for my benefit. After a busy summer I need to have a rest until I hopefully have a new burst of energy in spring.

I’ve had the rotting wood pile since my grandkids were little and interested in everything that crept and crawled!
I’m gonna leave all wet leaves til spring ….good for soil anyway…..and gonna do as I’m asked , and leave garden. That’s my reasoning ….but mostly because my sciatica is killing me at the moment!

I will cut my grass if the weather permits because the mower collects the fallen leaves. If they are left, they rot and cause bare patches. There are plenty of leaves for wildlife in the borders.

We love our garden, grounds, as fall turn to winter - the colours are magnificent. We paint some grasses, cones, branches, arrange big pots - including trimmings - we'll tidy in the spring.

There’s a gap between where the shed ends and a brick wall start. Every year since the shed was put up, it’s been the Robin family home until it’s kids have left.

I've been following the expert all year without realising it.