LEAF COMPOST

Good morning  

7 am here in Chicago

First thing I do every morning is check out FB Marketplace and Craigslist to find new posts for compost for my first SF garden

This morning I came across 'leaf compost'  "last years grind".  That is what the post said.  Can I use this as one of my five?  It is cheap and it is close

Thanks,   Dani

Probably useful, but it is important to know what they mixed with shredded leaves for the greens.  Did they use grass clippings, and if so was the grass sprayed with herbicide?  Did they use manure, and if so was it organic (the only guarantee it doesn't have Grazon in it)? What did they use for the nitrogen mix?

My 2 cents.

If the product is leaf compost, then something else was added to the leaves.  If they mowed the leaves on a grass lawn. with the green grass as the "greens/nitrogen", then what they use on the lawn is important.  Or, horse manure as OG mentioned? What does 'last year's grind' mean?  Fall 2022?  2021?  Does he mean compost made with a heck of a lot of shredded leaves?

Leaf mold is different. It's usually a big pile of leaves left in place.  To harvest leaf mold, usually the top layer of leaves is moved aside and the black gold at the bottom (often teaming with worms) is harvested. Leaf material should not be recognizable.
 
This is from another thread in 2019, where Dan in Ct wrote, "Leaf mold and compost made from mostly leaves are two totally different things. Leaf mold is a cold process that is almost totally fungal dominated and it can take 2-3 years to make a proper leaf mold. A compost made from mostly leaves can be either a hot or a cold process and initially it is a bacterial dominated process, finished compost if made well should have a diverse microbial population, takes between 6 months and 2 years depending upon method and region."
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t20923-leaf-mold-vs-compost?highlight=leaf+mold