Re: the answer is maybe

> ...If you scrounge 19 overstuffed bags of leaves two years ago and pile them up > in an out of way space, will they compost over that period of time into > black humus? The answer is...

maybe. It takes water to support the composting process. If the bag of leaves was dry, it will remain a bag of dry leaves for a very long time.

Reply to
Dwight Sipler
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I recommend taking them out of the bag. It's easier to take leaves out than compost. True, you lose some by the wind blowing them away, but I think there's a net loss of work involved...

I'm not talking commercial grade trash bags here

I guess if I read down fast enough or far enough I would see that you followed my suggestion long before I made it. PS: a lot of communities are now collecting leaves in paper bags for composting. They just stack up the bags and probably use a bulldozer to move them around (areate and uncompact them). The paper composts also.

I have the same problem. Landscapers bring me leaves, which they dump and I scrape up into a pile. They sit there a year or so and then I roll the pile (with a tractor) to another location. That's my answer to turning a pile 10' high and 75' long. About 25% of the time I come across dry leaves, but the rest of it gets started composting. It takes a couple of years this way.

Reply to
Dwight Sipler

I used to fill up the bags with the leaves, then use them to mulch the roses. In spring I would haul them out of the way, make a hole, run the hose into them, then flatten them stick em in teh sun but out of the way and had compost by the next year. Ingrid

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Reply to
dr-solo

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