Leaves are a wonderful tree mulch IMHO I always use them, with excellent results. Of course I do shred them very well first. Leaves contain trace minerals that tap roots pulled from deep in the earth bringing these minerals to the surface. More trace minerals are in leaves than in rock dust. Benefical fungi love leaf mulch, and you attract nutrient producing bacteria. Not to mention it is the earth worm's favorite food! It doesn't get better. Shred and lay in the fall and they keep the heat in the ground around the roots, by mid-spring they are almost completely gone. To help breakdown add coffee grounds throughout the winter. I hold them down with a thin layer of compost. Think about a forest, the leaves fall all around the trees and they do fine, to think they are harmful is incorrect, and people have pro by their name and suggest otherwise? Wow! Sounds like a way to sell other mulches and make volcanoes around trees! I guess all the different folks in these links are wrong? Not! http://www.organiclandcare.net/education/olc-articles/mulching-save-money-using-leaves-mulch http://landscaping.about.com/od/pruningtrees/f/mulching_trees.htm http://organicgardening.about.com/od/organicgardenmaintenance/a/autumnleaves.htm

there was similar post earlier this spring; you may want to search for more info. there's also an edible landscaping forum, which may be fun to peruse. i have many cane berries and crosses- black, red and purple raspberries, 2 red raspberry/blackberry crosses, 3 varieties of blackberries, and wineberries (sort of a red rasp that will fruit in shade). they've all done pretty well for me, even though i'm borderline for the amount of light they want, and all have fruited. i also have an asian persimmon*, asian pears* (3x grafted- not sure the varieties off the top), seckle pear*, another european pear, an espaliered apple* 3x, not sure of varieties, a grafted 4x apple* (fuji, braeburn, wynochee early & cox's orange pippen), 2 cornus mas aka cornelian cherries, a sour cherry* (northstar), a sweet cherry i think i lost to the frost (compact stella), 2 types of bush cherries*, contorted jujube, 4 or 5 types of figs* (but some are still tiny), pomegranate*, rabbiteye blues* (climax, tiffblue, powderblue and premier), evergreen huckleberry, which is still small, hazelnuts, tree hazel, loquat, trifoliate orange*, pawpaws, a potted meyer's lemon*, a potted patio nectarine*, potted gooseberries*, mulberries*, honeyberry and red currents, hardy kiwis*, artic kiwis, schizandra vine, regular strawberries* galore, alpine strawberries*, and probably some other stuff i'm forgetting. a couple things that haven't done well are the honeyberries and i can't keep rhubarb going for anything (wish i could, i miss it). the gooseberries and tree cherries have struggled. thimble berry aka flowering raspberry which is a thornless bush that bears red rasps, has done well, but will not set fruit below a mtn elevation (didn't know til after i bought them). the easiest things i have are the blues, persimmon, strawberries and asian pears. the pears require some pruning but that's about it, and the other 3 don't even really need that. caneberries are pretty easy, but you do have to know how to prune them. about 1/2 of what i have is too small to bear still, so i can't say about the fruiting, but the plants have been ok. i'm starring the stuff i've had that's fruited. apples need sprayed to get edible fruit. there are organic methods out there, but since i'm lazy about spraying, we haven't had great yields. peaches and nectarines are probably the most labor intensive fruit you can grow, fyi. autumn olive is edible and makes a good syrup if you have some growing near you. it's related to goumi. we haven't messed with grapes because the regular ones don't do so hot and we don't care for muscadines. in general, we prefer to grow stuff you can't find in market, or is too expensive, or just tastes a bunch better fresh. we haven't bothered with most nuts because we don't have the sun or space. hazelnuts are bushes that do ok in part shade, so they are going in the backyard (still potted for now). there are 3 books i highly recommend if you get into edible landscaping: both stella otto's 'backyard berry' book and 'backyard orchardist' books and another that goes by 'organic gardener's edible plants' by van patten. have fun experimenting and bon appetit!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely photos! Since I live up here in the frozen north, I can't grow most of the macrophyllas, so I've been drooling. Dtd & George - The Ville de Lyon growing through my Endless Summer is a product of my slowness in getting the trellis finished and up. I actually have quite acid soil, but it's too sandy where they are for good plant growth since there's no water available, so I used well-rotted horse manure, plopped by the tractor bucket 8 " deep right on top of the sand. I mulched it with wood shavings (the bed is next to the family woodshop) to keep the weeds down. I guess the horse manure must still be somewhat basic, and since I didn't mix in the native fine sand at all, the blooms are pink. I'm interested to see if over time the color changes on the Endless Summer as the worms and burrowing rodents do their thing and the soil gets more mixed. I do have rhodies in the same area, some in the same unamended manure and some in beds where I mixed the manure into the soil before I got too lazy. The rhodies are all thriving, so it might be a lack of aluminum (?) that keeps it from turning blue. I guess I'll have to try starting a few cuttings and play around with where it's blue and where it's pink. The Penny Mac in the same bed is a mix of cream, pale pink and pale blue, but I don't know if it is pH dependent. (Of course, I could always do a pH test . . . )

I've planted two hazelnut trees - a straight one in my old garden (which is right next to my new garden), and a corkscrew one in a big container. They are lovely shrubs, but I've never yet had a single ripe nut off one - the squirrels always get there first. However, this post has got me wanting to copy Alcina and grow an almond in a pot - do squirrels eat almonds? Also, re lemon: I was given an ailing lemon treelet by friends who kept it in the conservatory all year round. I left it outside until November, and have overwintered it in my unheated utility room, a lean-to with lots of big windows - it's thriving! The first fruit is big and pale yellow and will soon be ready to meet its perfect destiny (G&T).