2 year old decomposed leaves still a "brown"?

toledobend 1/21/2015, 3:45 am

Yesterday I pulled all the grass that was growing through a pile of mostly sweet gum leaves from two years ago. I turned over the whole pile with a pitchfork. What started as a six foot diameter 5 foot high penned up pile of leaves two years ago is now a 3 foot cone shaped pile of fairly decomposed leaves. I had to pull out all the grass roots that had grow up through and sideways the pile. The question is: can I still use these as a brown to go with my greens? Have a lot of the leaves composted into something useful?

**Kelejan** 1/21/2015, 10:38 am

Certainly, toledobend. The brown leaves will a "brown" for the rest of their existence.
Just add your greens to them.

**Turan** 1/21/2015, 12:48 pm

You can use the partially rotted leaves in a compost pile as browns. The fully rotted leaves are called leaf mold and is a valuable resource in its own right.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t18587-leaf-mold-for-part-of-peat

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/basic-leaf-mold

**camprn** 1/21/2015, 1:30 pm

Whatcha' got there is called Leaf Mold...

great stuff! cheers

**sanderson** 1/21/2015, 2:38 pm

I had to "Bing" sweet gum. Liquidamber, the pretty tree with the painful seed pods, that are in turn used in crafts.

It looks like its leaves would make wonderful leaf mold.

toledobend 1/21/2015, 10:14 pm

Thanks everyone. This is my last year for my huge pile of sweet gum leaves Sad

. I just had about 40 sweet gums cut in my front yard. Next year I will be planting some fruit trees there.

Cajun Cappy 1/22/2015, 12:57 pm

On a side note, that sweet gum wood is great for smoking and bbq. Take the bark off though it can be too strong. Sounds like you may have a few pieces and possably some chips around.its a very good smokey flavor I put a split log on the coals in a bbq pit as well.

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2 year old decomposed leaves still a "brown"?

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