He needs a Christmas thank you so much!

Unfortunately, he won't be back for two weeks (winter schedule), but I'll catch him when he comes back again.

I do the same thing with the leaves and now the mulch leaf mix I get. It's doing wonders. Found earth worms for the first time last spring and several of my neighbors bring me their leaves. I will come home to find bagged leaves and sometimes hay and straw bails in my driveway. I have also found a local source for manure for free but I have to go get it. I have been layering those three mixed in with charger biochar. It's slow but I like the results. I can't afford to bring in 3 or so truck loads of good soil and this is making better soil than I can buy. Glad you got your leaves they will unlock magic. I found a place out in a local wma that has great soil from the oaks( some of them are hundreds of years old) the fungus and microbes have made some of the best I have ever seen and plan on harvesting a small amount to introduce the fungus to my soil.

All the oak leaves that fall on my driveway get used as mulch. The plants love oak mulch.

Glenn, I found mycelium and had a few mushrooms spring up last year for the first time. I was so deliriously happy, I wanted to do a happy dance right out in the yard, but managed to restrain myself until I got inside. Only a permaculture gardener gets this happy about mushrooms in their gardens.

My neighbors used to bring me bags of leaves too, or just call me when they had them. Leaves turned one side of my house that was pure marl into beautiful, black soil over the 15 years I was in that house.

Pea, yes, my plants love the oak leaves too, but I have mostly the large chinquapin oak leaves, so they don't break down as quickly. Still, the earthworms seem to manage to decompose them. I wait for them to mow the magnolia leaves before I put them down, or they will NEVER decompose. Too tough for the little earthworms.

I use banyan leaves. I use to rake them up and throw them out. But one year, I was very ill and did not get a chance to rake them up... my gardeners didn't do anything with them except blow them in a pile. That spring when I went to move them the bottom layer next to ground was full of earthworms. .... I now mulch them with a Sun Joe mulcher. It takes the bid leaves and chomps them down into very fine particles so it doesn't take as long for them to decay. I have been putting them on my rose beds for two years, but I still haven't noticed great dirt yet. I honestly don't know where the leaves goes to... I know they aren't blowing or washing away. I t seems like they seek into the ground and the sand keeps coming to the top.... however, I hope that someday I will have great soil. Last year, right after I put the leaves down I bought some earthworms and mixed them into the leaves hoping they would turn all of the leaves into good soil....

I have been adding oak leaves to my backyard for decades - usually about 150 bags each spring. The last time I checked my garden soil it was about 30% organic matter. A big move up from the sand I started with. When I first started, my garden was infested with mole crickets. I haven't seen any of those critters for a long, long time.

DG I'm still waiting on that pure black garden gold. It's so much better than what I started with and I have hummus forming and lots of mushrooms. Still a waiting for a Fairy circle. All this mulch leaf and needle mix I get is fast forwarding things really well.

At my previous home, I had oak trees & we never raked. I had soil of gold. In this home, I have pine trees & my soil is yucky!

I have to add that before my mom passed, my husband would rake her leaves at Thanksgiving (to work off that turkey) & bring the leaves home. She had a wonderful old pecan tree in her yard & I have a self planted pecan tree from the leaves that came from her house.

Tiffany, maybe you could get leaves from a neighbor? Here in Tampa, people bag up leaves and put them next to the street for the City to pick up. The city sends them to composters. I pick up lots of bags of leaves that people put out. For the past several years I have been mostly getting leaves from one neighbor who bags over a hundred bags every year. I like his because they aren't very heavy. Some people use really big bags and fill them up so they are a bit heavy to load.

Tiffany, you can also get free mulch from utility companies in most areas. You have to apply, but they bring a whole truckload. Spreading is much harder than raking leaves, sadly. I'd be so sad if I had no leaves. I worry every time we have a hurricane that my beautiful oak tree will fall.

Thanks, Shuffles. ;) Yes, I used to pick up bags in OH, but nobody bags leaves here. If they don't burn them, they pile them @ the curb.

Thanks, Dirty. ;)

Tiffany, just curious (or kinda stupid!): why do they pile leaves at the curb? Do people come take them? Here, I would think they would blow into the street and clog storm drains.

Irma, in my community, folks rake leaves to the curb, and the city will vacuum them into a big truck and haul them off. I like to blow leaves into piles and use in my garden to hold moisture and help prevent weeds. I mulch some of the leaves with my mower. Unfortunately, my tiller is not working, so I can't till them into the soil.