Leaf Litter - Pick it up!

Through Autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way

You always loved this time of year

Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now

Cause you're not here.. 

At this time of year when I see piles of leaves on the footpath, I often hum these few lines from the Moody Blues.  Sometimes I even kick the leaves a little. Yet they are only the 'golden gown' of the song for a few days.  After festering on the street, they become sodden, brackish and manky and they stick to the soles of your shoes, and you check to see, if perhaps you stood in something very unpleasant, which you've now brought into the house, but you haven't.

Actually the whole process is very good, even the dog dirt (not in your house obviously). Because the leaves are a supreme source of nourishment and in a year's time if stored nicely, you will be plunging your hand into your hessian bag and coming up with a fistful of dark, rich compost which crumbles like chocolate fudge cake. Yum. 



The leaf mould  can now can be scattered on beds and around trees which love this kind of mushroomy mulch, because it reminds them of the forests where they once grew. And of course it's all free.

Mulching trees in Stationers Park

Which is why I am sorry that all those lovely piles of leaf letter that Veolia leave in their jolly purple bags to be collected will end up.... in a furnace.  From ash to ash.  The reason is that once the leaves are combined with the effluvia we find on the streets (plastic wrappings, sweet papers, metal ring pulls, road grit), they are considered contaminated.  Regrettably a natural resource has now become a waste product.

I don't blame Veolia in this. The Environmental Agency are conducting trials into using street sweeping of leaves to make compost, but not in an urban context.  In general the advice from the EA is clear: 'leaf  fall has always been classified a non-recyclable waste.' (www.mrw.co.uk)  

There again, it is our fault that we leave litter on the street and it does not make sense for large companies to employ people to scour piles of leaves to remove small items. It is a question of scale. 

However on a small scale, we can do something local.  The next work day for the Stationers Park Park Volunteer Group is on Friday 9 November, 1-5pm and we will be collecting the fallen leaves, bagging them up and storing them for next year.  We will also be combining them with grass cuttings produced when Richard scythed the borders of the water feature. The grass cuttings accelerate the process, as the leaves rot.  

This will be in a couple of weeks so let's hope we get lots of lovely leaves before then.  (And we'll be celebrating the re-opening of Reg the park keeper's hut with a cup of tea and cake!)