In autumn I clear the fallen leaves from my small lawn.

I put these in the compost bin or put them in a bag and leave them to turn into leaf mould. I have a spare bin that us perfect for the job. These were collected from the garden last year.

This bin was a little over half full to start with. I dampened them and left fungal action do the rest. With the action of breaking down, it’s volume reduced by half.

You can see there are still some leaves yet to fully decompose.

If I left it another year it would have time to break down completely but I don’t have enough space to store 2 years of leaf mould so I’m going to use it now and make space to store new leaves this autumn.

I am using it to repot my spring bulbs ready for next year. I start by mixing roughly equal amounts by volume of leaf mould with my garden soil in a bucket and give it a good turn to combine.

I put dry twigs or prunings in the bottom of my pots as a bit of drainage before adding the leaf mould mix.

I then re-pot my spring bulbs, breaking them up if they are too congested, to give them a little more room and put on a good display for next spring.