Use Your Leaves As Winter Mulch

With winter fast approaching, we need to concentrate on protecting our treasured flower gardens. In a pinch, if I don't have adequate mulch to use on every flower bed, I have my son rake the leaves that fell during fall into a big pile. I take most of my hanging pots and place them in bare spots in the flower beds. I then pile the leaves onto the bed, completely covering everything.

I have done this for the last 3 years and it works very well. When the last frost has come, I then carefully remove any loose leaves and use the rest for natural mulch. It's not the most attractive way to protect your flowers but definitely the most inexpensive. I have annuals that return every year due to this primitive mulching method, with great success too.

By Cindy from Alabama

Answers:

Use Your Leaves As Winter Mulch

I just came in from raking leaves in my back yard. Our village sends out vacuum trucks every fall to pick up leaves raked to the curb, but I wouldn't dream of giving away my precious leaves. They're much too valuable as mulch over the winter. And maybe they're not beautiful to others, but they're beautiful to me, especially in the spring when all my perennials come back. (Annuals won't make it through a Wisconsin winter.) (11/10/2007)

By Janice C.