Ahhhhh, the sweet smell of leaf mold! I make mine with the leaves that fall off my two 60+ years old silver maples, but I find that it isn't enough. So, when I see my neighbours putting their bags on the curb, I ask if I can take them. They look at me as though I were some kind of E.T., but they always let me take their leaves. My problem is I don't have enough out-of-the-way room on my lot to have the number of piles I have leaves for. So, I just have one big wire bin (on asphalt, to boot, but it works just as well) and I bag the rest. Surprisingly, leaves are very stable when they are in a plastic bag, so in spring, when last year's batch is just about ready, I just open up a dozen bags and start a new batch. The leaves are in about the same condition as they were in fall. Some leaf juice accumulates at the bottom of the bags, though, so don't store this in places where you don't want any moldy juice spilled. I can't thank leaf mold enough for the terrific job it does in the garden. It is so amazing that I think it is worth raking leaves up in the park for, and even getting rid of a shrub to make room for the wire bin. Bear in mind that there will be numerous little critters in the leaf mold. Mine is full of earthworms (and lots of other cute bugs, such as earwigs and the most incredible creature of all, the dreaded scutigera), and when I use the mold, I always remove as many live worms as possible and throw them back in the bin. They are more useful alive in the bin than dead and rotting in a flower bed. Nothing ever really grew in my uncovered wire bin (and weeds are aplenty around here), so, although I haven't used it as mulch so far, I think it does provide protection from weeds. The texture of leaf mold is such that weeds would have a hard time germinating in it. It is impenetrable. Of course, if you wait three years before using it, it may well be decomposed enough to allow for seed germination. The most efficient natural weed buster I have used is pine needles. An inch of pine needles blocks out absolutely everything, and in my opinion looks much better than the yucky orange wood chips. I actually like the fine texture and the soft, hay yellow colour that brings out the green in plants. It is also excellent against erosion and is the longest lasting natural mulch (3 years). Just don't walk over it as it easily gets compacted.

jugglerguy: Either way the maple leaves around here aren't ready to use as mulch in spring. Shredded they take less room & do compost faster. Left whole whether in large wire bins or plastic bags rolled around now & then they're not ready until at least 2 years. Have you heard of chop & drop a term by Ann Lovejoy, a Pacific Northwest garden writer? As you cut back spent perennials just chop them up & drop in place as your bottom layer of mulch, then top those with the shredded leaves as you acquire them in the fall for your uniform look. This way you only move them once letting them compost in place. In spring you could lightly rake through them a bit to freshen up the beds at the time you've usually applied the leaves. Sometimes, I pile it on thicker in places especially with perennials that don't mind mulch over the crown & come spring can spread it out a bit more after I pull it back from the crowns. Slug bait is a must in my climate all year round! Maybe you want to try a longer lasting mulch such as arborist wood chips if you can get them delivered to you. They last much longer here than leaves & the combo works to enrich the soil. Sometimes, I mix up a batch of mulch to top off the beds to include used coffee grounds along with leaves & wood chips. Once they're spread on the soil & we've had a few rains you really can't tell what the dark stuff is there.

Egganddart49, We both are using almost the same kind of leaves, thus we have a great example of what the leaves are doing and how different zones interact with basically the same kind of leaves. To me, gardening is about "point of view", how you look at it if you will. When I look at what you are saying this is what I see: Your zone is cooler than mine, thus you will have slower decomposition in your garden. The leaves you put down in the winter sat there due to low temperatures. What the leaves did is act like a security blanket for your garden. When rain or snow piled up on the leaves the water seeped through, not flowed. As the water seeped in it took some of the nutrients from the leaves into the soil with it. Because of the limiting effect of the leaves you suffered less leaching in your soil, this causes you to need less amendments for your plants. As well, you added nutrients from the leaves all winter long, this is a very good thing. When spring came you had to move those pesky leaves out the way, but what did you find underneath? You discovered soft tender soil, moist and happy that you are the owner of the garden. They proved their gratitude by giving you a good crop, and paid you back by making sure you did less work in the process. Shoot, if you stopped concerning yourself with how many leaves are still there and focus on what you want to better improve next years crop who knows what you will end up with. Now ole Blutranes on the other hand lives where it is mild in the winter. His mulch gets chomped on by the microbes the minute it gets warm enough outside. By spring most of his leaves are gone, but his soil is ready to go too. Blutranes enjoys the same benefit you enjoy, water seeps into his soil too; he gets those minerals from his leaves as well. Blutranes can plant earlier, but Egganddart can still grows just as good as Blutranes can in less time. They both are given extra time for other things due to some leaves they put on their gardens. Blutranes is sitting at his computer looking for more wisdom from others to use that extra time on. Egganddart can now make a decision what Egganddart wants to pull outta Eggs' hat next. Work in the garden is good, less work even better IMO. I conclude that you have discovered a way to do more with less and save some money, and get a mater or two out the deal. Sounds like a plan over here Blutranes

A couple of years ago while trying to figure out how to keep markers by my hosta (my idea where they should come up in spring NEVER was the same as where they really are) I was mentally multi-tasking. My winter mess of wire tomato cages was on my mind also. If you stack them they are difficult to seperate in spring. I came up with the idea of inverting a cage(tine side up) over each fading hosta and using fabric pins to hold it in place. Then instead of leaving a thick pile of leaves over the entire bed, once the ground was frozen I piled leaves a couple of feet deep inside the cages, which held the leaves in place. By spring they had broken down to about 6-8 inches of mulch and I knew where the hosta were. In the past I always raked tags away when cleaning up in spring. It worked, but did little to enhance the general soil in the bed. I now have each hosta marked with a rock/tag from the river that can't be raked away. Winter mulching really does help a hosta bed, but during the growing season my soil has been bare. I use a shuffle hoe to control new weed seedlings (which is probably why I never noticed hosta seedlings). I have had few slugs in the past but would like to try the shredded leaf-mold. I thought I had to let it break down over the winter and spread it in spring, so ken, you advice is very timely. Now I can use my compost bin as it is designed for, using just enough leaf shreds to generate and nice quantity of compost. Les