I'm asking, not telling. I like to hear what people know from different parts of the country. That's why I was asking on that one. Leaves here turn dry and crunch to shit immediately. Living in the desert.
I hear ya man, the thing with a leaf mold, and even here, is you gotta keep them moist, almost look at it like a houseplant, keep it moist but not wet.
keep it tarped to help the transpiration/evaporation of water to a minimum, and that's the key.
I actually like to wait until after it rains to go collect the leaves for two reasons, one, it sorta "cleans" them of any possible manmade type pollutants (which, lets face it, are everywhere) and two, it gets them the exact type of moist that makes the compost pile happy, just shred and layer in the amendments.
I DON'T have a leaf mold thing going anymore, I took all the leaves I had from last year, that were under the house for a whol year, and when I looked at them, they looked as "new" as the ones I collected this year....
soooo yea... not waiting like 3 yrs to do that, I mean... i'm a patient man... but shit.
SO, into the pile they went.
I figure the humus from the leaves are there whether they are composted with nutrients or not.
So my mix isn't exactly a leaf-mold based mix, per se (always sound like a douche using that phrase)
but in the end, there is more leaf-mold/compost in my mix than peat, by far.
