That magic ingredient is human urine. Its free. Guys can directly add. Women can use one of those "hats" that you see in a hospital that set inside the toilet lid. If you dilute it before you add it to the pile, its quite effective.

But, as a person who deals with massive quantities of leaves every year, I would suggest that you spread the leaves back out on your lawn and mulch as many of them as you can right back into the grass. (You may have done that already.) And then start composting the remaining leaves.

The leaves are mostly high carbon, so you want to add high nitrogen materials. Shredded junk mail is even higher in carbon than leaves, so that wouldn't help.

If there's a Starbucks nearby, you can get their grounds. Other restaurants and coffee shops may give you grounds also, but Starbucks does it as corporate policy.

If you buy something to add, what you want is some kind of fertilizer with Nitrogen in it. If you're trying to stay organic, something like blood meal can help. There are also some organic fertilizers like Milorganite, Ringers, Scotts Organic choice.

Leaves by them self will compost into a beautiful finished product, but will take a couple of years to do it. What you need is green vegetative matter like grass clippings to mix with your high carbon leaves. Moisture and oxygen complete the requirements for rapid composting. Look for a source in your own neighborhood or telephone your county extension service. Al

Thanks for the tips! We do spread as much on the lawn as we can and go over them with the mower to help out the grass.... Just have a bunch of piles now that we've been clearing the woods a bit. We already use Ringer... maybe I'll toss some of that on. So any fertilzer with high nitrogen. Anything in the fertilizer I should avoid? Just one with as much Nitrogen as possible? Thanks!

I would make sure you steer clear of chemical fertilizers-- they do the opposite of what you are trying to do (fortify the soil).

Add grass clippings, kitchen waste, Starbucks grounds, DEFINATLEY go get an organic "compost starter" at your local garden store--- I know EB Stone makes a great one: http://www.ebstone.org/11_compost.php

Hi Digby

I'm not sure if I have the question correct. Are you just trying to gather all the leaves into a smaller area so that you can start composting them or are you trying to use up those leaves so that they aren't around anymore?

If you don't mind a few piles around over the summer, I'd get some wire fencing, build a circle or two with it and throw the leaves into it. Add grass clippings as they become available and make a really nice compost to put into the garden in the fall.

If you need to get rid of the leaves now, shred if able and rototill into the garden. You might have to add some supplemental N to the garden when you plant depending on how much leaf material you put in. Some of the leaves could be used as a mulch on the garden as well.

Lloyd HRC

Disclaimers and cautions:
I'm not a gardener, use my advice with caution, do not operate machinery under the influence of alcohol, do not immerse electronic equipment in water, don't run with scissors, call your mother once in a while. :)

Old leaves have a Carbon to Nitrogen, C:N, ratio of around 80:1 so to compost them you probably need to add some Nitrogen, Cattle/Poultry/sheep or goat/Llama/Alpaca manure, blood meal, bat guano (manure), or Alfalfa meal in quantities to get that C:N ratio to about 30:1 to speed up that digestion. Leaves will compost by themselves in time, they do that in the forest all the time.

I would shred and spread as mulch wherever you need mulch (or mulch back into the grass). They'll rot pretty quickly all by themselves and you won't have to do anything.

Thanks all for the tips..... we'll find some manure to add in and some other nitrogen sources to help speed this along. We're have until May 1 to do open burning to get rid of the trees and brush we cut up,so we're looking to compost the leaves as we clean up the yard and have it ready to go for spring gardening...
Thanks again!!!

If you can chip those trees and shrubs you will have a useful mulch to use. Burning them release many air pollutants and causes many of the nutrients that are in them to go up in the smoke, the pollutants.

Urea.
That's the "secret" ingredient.
With that being said (in early spring)I have been able to take 20 bags of leaves, shred em,(2 bags after shredding) wet em, put em in a trash can, dump them out weekly and at the end of two months have finished compost.
All without adding any thing but rainwater.

Where can I buy urea, and how much should I use per cubic foot?

Urea is free...

some would argue that it's not, but I P freely, lol

If you have a farm supply store near you, give them a call and ask if they have Urea.

Have a Great Day,
Jim

One thing about urea is if you use too much it will "gas off" as ammonia gas.
You could also use anything with a high nitrogen content.
I don't like to buy anything for my compost, I would use instead of urea : grass clippings, horse manure, cow manure, food waste, road kill.

ialbtc

OK-so I went to my local farm store and found 5# bags of urea- 45-0-0,for $4.25 each. They only had 2 bags and I bought them both. The urea is in a small pellet form. Should I just spread a bit of that into the leaves and rake it all around, or should I dissolve in water first, then spray/pour that over the leaves and rake it all around to mix in? Thanks!! -Digby