With the first storm of the fall it is time to get out there and collect gifts for the garden i.e. seaweed and leaves. The best thing is they are free for the taking although they do require some physical exertion..

The seaweed is best collected early in the storm season before it becomes too full of bits of wood, plastic, etc. Although kelp is the favoured commercial fertilizer in the dried form, I use all types, especially the Fucus or rockweed which is common around the shores and the green seaweed that looks like a lettuce leaf. Kelp fronds need to be chopped up a bit. Seaweed is wonderful stuff for the garden. It contains only 5% of the cellulose of land plants, and concentrates many of the minerals from the sea. It is the highest organic source of potassium, trace elements and sodium. It also releases its nutrients slowly. Although it will have some salt on it when collected, it is washed away by our winter rains. You can use it in many ways. Spread about 3” on top of the bare soil and dig it in now, sowing your green cover crop on top. By spring it will be almost decomposed. You can tell where it has been because the area will be full of fat earthworms. Or layer it in the compost or leaf pile as it is built up or just spread it on top of the soil. Anyway that works for you is a good way.

The leaves are beginning to fall, hastened by our hot dry summer and blustery fall. They have some nutrients brought up from deep down in the soil and are a wonderful source of humus. Again you have a choice of how to use them. You can rake them into a 4” layer and run over them with the lawn mower a few times to cut them up into small pieces which can be directly added to the garden as mulch. Or fill an empty garbage can half full and run the weed eater in it for a few minutes. When the leaves are chopped up they will break down much faster. Finally if you are in less of a hurry to get them onto the garden, make a ring of chicken wire and pile them in, hopefully layered with seaweed. By the next fall they will be broken down enough to be added to the garden. A word of warning: if your pile is near a tree or shrubs, put down some weed cloth or a layer of plastic first or the tree roots will grow up into it very fast. They know a good thing when it comes along. My mother who was a very good gardener loved leaf mold, the final result of leaf decay. We had a family expedition early each spring to a ditch she knew in the local estate where leaves had accumulated for decades. It was black and rich and coveted by all gardeners back then when commercial fertilisers were not so available. Every garbage can and bucket we had was filled and brought back for her potting mix. If you have no readily available source of leaves, check if your neighbours will let you have theirs if you rake them. I know the campground is deep in maple leaves by mid-November each year. Perhaps you could have them if you raked them up. Great exercise on a cool day.