A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Making my own soil . . .

Whaddya' think of this idea?

Leaves (which we have plenty of on the compost heap) make good soil. And tea is good for plants too . . . sooooooooooooo . . . the blender!

Save my tea bags and once a week, put them in the blender - wash some leaves out under the tap and add them to the blend.

Should be able to make enough to fill a gallon container each week.

I think it'll work fine, maybe blend the leaves until they're fine and make a 'clayish' paste and use was a mulch?

sounds great! my compost when it's done IS pretty much dirt. you actually can't tell the difference between it and m.g. but, I see your in canada and your 'compost growing season' is short. I get the fact your wanting break down the leaves ect first. that will surely speed up your dirt making.

oh and forgot to add....I think you'd still need to let it sit a while before adding to your garden or beds. (make sure it smells like good soil and not like rot) but, man! yea, love your idea! let us know how it turns out and if your able to output as much as your wanting to.

I use an old blender for almost everything I put in my compost ( except paper I tear it up very very small) as far as the leaves go I let them get "crunchy dry" as as I put them into the compost I "crumble" them up,, My compost developes very quickly like that,, I also add bonemeal and bloodmeal, and aged sheep manure it helps "heat" it up and gets it cooking faster,, so Carly if you want compost in a few short weeks that's the way to do it,, the smaller the pieces the faster it breaks down!

Well, I do get lots of soil from just letting them sit naturally. Digging it out is hard though - it's got lots of branches and twigs in it - I normally just sit there with a bucket and strain it in with a sieve.

We get enough leaves - no problem with that - we were a foot deep after the winter - the snow fell before it got raked up. I know a lot of people had that.

I'm not really worried about the blender - leaves are just vegetation, the same as chopping carrots or anything else - just gotta' make sure I rinse 'em off, I guess.

My husband will have a sheet fit when he sees me doing it, but what the heck - I love my experiments.

I've got a couple of vases of lilacs - they're spent now - I think I'll dry those out and put them together in a pot - dunno' if they'd grow anything from seed, but it's all organic material. Maybe I'll make a couple pots with the dried flowers and use it to stand a couple of lilac cuttings.

Oh, I just love spring and all its madness!