Ah, fall! The crisp air. The cooler days. The mounds of leaves
in your yard and dead plants in
your garden.

“Be grateful for what you’ve got and use it,” said Wayne
McLaurin, a horticulturist with the
University of Georgia Extension Service. “There’s so much
usable ‘trash’ in your yard and
garden that’s free.”

McLaurin said landfills don’t take yard or garden waste anymore.
New laws ban leaves, yard
trimmings and other organic material. And those city and county
landfills that have special
organic-matter disposal sites are increasing their fees for
pickup and disposal nearly every
year.

“When you think about it, it’s kind of silly to pay someone else
to cart away yard trash and
leaves this fall and then turn around and buy mulches and
compost next spring,” McLaurin
said.

The dying and dead leaves and plants can provide insulation this
winter and valuable organic
material for next year’s plants.

It’s important to clean gardens and flower beds every year. “The
dead plants can harbor
disease organisms and insects,” McLaurin said, “that may damage
or destroy plants next
year.”

McLaurin said he uses as much yard clippings and trimmings as he
can as mulch first. Then he
composts any remaining material. Mulches keep the soil moist and
insulate plant roots.

Using yard waste as mulch is also like composting in place. “The
mulch decays right there,”
he said. “Then next spring, a quick cultivating adds rich
organic matter into the soil.”

Grind leaves and dead plants by running over them with a lawn
mower. Grinding the material
makes the pieces smaller and keeps them from blowing away.

Then spread the ground-up trimmings two to three inches deep
around ornamental bushes,
trees and in flower beds.

Some people prefer the look of pine straw as mulch, he said. “So
use two and a half inches of
yard waste,” he said, “and cover it with enough pine straw for
the look you want.”

You can compost and make it a lot of work, McLaurin said. Or you
can leave the trash in a
pile and it will rot and make compost by itself.

Pile dead plants, yard trimmings and leaves in one out-of-the-
way, but easy-to-get-to, place.
For every three big bags’ worth of leaves, add one cup of 10-10-
10 fertilizer.

McLaurin said it’s safe to use any animal manure, too, except
pet waste.

Turn the pile over about once a month and make sure it stays
moist. The material decays into
rich, black compost in five to six months. “You don’t have to
turn it,” McLaurin said. “But it
will compost more slowly if you don’t.”

During composting, the rotting process makes the pile heat up.
That heat kills most disease
organisms and insects.

Most seeds die during the process, too. “The only two I’ve seen
come back are very seedy
weeds and morning glory,” McLaurin said. “But I think morning
glory comes back no matter
what!”

The county
extension office has more information about using mulches
and composting yard
waste.

“Using yard waste is smart on a lot of counts,” McLaurin
said. “It saves money and time and
helps the environment. There’s certainly no point in going out
to buy mulch and composted
material when you’ve already got it right there in your yard.”