Soil conditioner

Roger makes an interesting point about leaf material. Many of you have seen pictures of my patch of N cyclamineus. They are thriving under some silver birch trees and I’m convinced the covering of leaves every winter is essential to their well being.

We have many English trees in Christchurch which shed their leaves every autumn. I can never understand why the gardeners in our city rake up the leaves and send them to the tip. It seems to me that the God given way of replenishing the soil in the wild is for plants, or parts of plants, to live and die and for the decaying material to feed the plants which grow in their place and to condition the soil. I even suspect that decaying daffodil foliage provides nutrients for the bulbs left in the ground.

A garden worker told me that he worked at the home of a rather wealthy businessman. Every autumn they raked the leaves and sent them away. Later in winter they bought (spelling intended) in compost in order to mulch the gardens. Seemed a waste to me.

David Adams

still in shorts and t shirt wondering what snow feels like.