As a kid I raked leaves around the neighborhood for a buck. Now I'm harvesting them for reuse as a layer of biomass on hugel beds as I ease into the syntropic farming lifestyle. And just as start of leaf raking as a kid led to finding a fallen bird nest, that's how this season's raking began too, sparking memories a plenty.
Ten decades ago it didn't mean much beyond gaining a little pocket money to spend at the local stop-n-shop for candy and chips–useless as far as bodily nourishment goes. Now the raking means much more...real food grown here to feed upon sometime next summer, and through into fall and winter if all goes well.
Within an hour or two, piles of leaves have formed up around the yard ready for transport.
Adding a nice layer of leaves to the first hugel bed of this fledgling farm to decompose naturally in place, thoughts of how much plants are going to enjoy it all fill my farmer's mind.
With the compost bin almost full, now it's just a matter of letting time and nature work on it.
Contents of the compost bin are nicely ripening up and teaming with life, progress is good.
In the meantime, plants overwintering in the greenhouse are happily growing for springtime.
Providing a few foodstuffs like tomatoes, green onions and bell peppers throughout winter.
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