Yeah, the area is in deep shade, there are no branches above it so any rain falls directly into it and I've got a tiny bite of spare chicken wire to put over the top

Should work fine. If anyone doesn't know what a Hippo bag is, it's a cubic yard sized bulk trash bag.

If it's open to the weather it should get some moisture which you need. A sealed plastic bag with dry leaves will do nothing but sit there unless some water leaks in. That's why I encourage people to just put them in an open bin to get started decomposing instead of storing (i.e. mummifying) them till spring.

There is one advantage to bagging excess leaves in the fall. It is much easier to open and empty a bag into a bin in the spring than it is to transfer the leaves using a pitch fork and wheel barrow. Once I have all 6 of my bins filled in the fall I shred and bag the rest. I also use the bagged leaves in the winter to dump into my chicken run rather than buy pine shavings. Not sure where they go but they seem to disappear by spring.

Just like when making compost making leaf mold requires some moisture and some air. Sealing leaves in plastic will do little except slow the process down and use something made from a non renewable resource to do that.

I did, at one time, store extra leaves in plastic bags to keep them dry so they could be used as bedding in the chicken coop and horse stalls.

kimmq is kimmsr

You have a point LoneJack. Dry leaves are easier to handle and mix. I've made lots of leaves/grass clippings compost by piling materials on a tarp and rolling/turning the tarp to mix. It is easier to mix dry leaves than clumps of wet ones. It's a tradeoff between that and getting a head start on decomposition.

I had bagged leaves I had collected in the spring. I stacked them two bags high. I emptied them into bins yesterday. All the bags on the bottom were 50 to 75% worm castings. The bags were teaming with worms. I was shocked that worms had consumed so much material. I was going for leaf mold and wasn't expecting worm castings. I did poke a few holes in each bag.

Worm castings!! All the better Jon. I don't intentionally poke any holes in the bags but sometimes a stick or 2 will poke out the sides and some water will get in but I don't remember ever having a herd of worms colonize in the bags, probably because my leaf bags are filled in the fall and used up by late spring so not much time for the worms to infiltrate when the temps are suitable for them.

There is only so much room in the bins! I have my work cut out for me this weekend. Like much of the country we had 40+ mph winds over the last 2 days and all the leaves have come down except for some on the oak and hickory trees. The ground is covered again even though I have mowed up the leaves 3 times already. I have 2 bins that I just emptied finished compost from, one bin with nearly finished compost for spring use, and the other 3 bins have maybe a foot of room remaining after settling from the initial filling. Certainly not nearly enough room to hold all of the leaves I have yet to collect. I also need to finely shred some to mulch one more Garlic bed, 2 Asparagus beds and 3 beds that are vacant or soon to be. The rest will go into 40 gallon bags to compost with spring grass clippings after I have consolidated the 5 fall started bins into 2 or 3.

I get most of my leaves in the spring when the live oaks drop their leaves. I don't have to hunt for bags or even rake for leaves like the fall. They are everywhere! I think I will continue to store the bagged leaves in contact with the earth. That was some beautiful stuff in those bags. I transferred them into bins to finish. I know what you mean Lone Jack. I have four compost bins and three bins for leaves. The rest were dumped in a huge pile in the spring minus the 20 or so bagged leaves.

I need to invest in a leaf shredder. I currently shred with a mulching mower against the back wall of my shop. It's a lot of work.

jon2412, were the leaves that attracted worms wet, or dry. I always thought that worms required moisture, so I'm curious to know if they like dry leaves.

I have a leaf shredder...it works pretty good, but is a bit of a pain. It's basically an upside down enclosed weed wacker. So you're dealing with plastic "strings" that wear out quickly. I use strings that are much thicker (.130") than the ones that came with it, but they still wear down (to little 1" nubs) more than once during a session. And are a bit of a POA to replace. I bought a roll and cut my own so it's not expensive, just tedious. It's also a very dusty business, so a breathing mask of some kind (I use a full face plastic shield...not really fpr the dust) is wise.

Here's the one I have...http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006XMTM?Version=1&entries=0

It's a Flowtron....looks like the newer version has a different string hub, so it may be easier to change them.

Earthworms require some moisture to breath.

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~rlenet/Earthworms.html

Shredding leaves is dusty work no matter which shredder you use.

kimmq is kimmsr

I used to have a 16HP DR field and brush mower-a walk behind bush hog, essentially. This bad boy wold mow 3 inch saplings. I'd just make a mountain of leaves and run them over. It never bogged down. Worked great. But, I traded it toward the next toy when I no longer had 3 inch saplings to mow down.

Today, I bag some and leave under the trees. I shred some in the mighty mack to compost over winter. I pile some to roll around in and leave til spring. It's all fun.

Yes the leaves were saturated.