Turning leaves from yard nuisance to lawn nutrients
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Bagged and ready: Yard waste sits piled in paper bags waiting to be composted at Bethlehem’s Compost Facility, where New Scotland sends seasonal yard waste, including leaves, from its residents. In the fall, bags of leaves accumulate at the facility.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Tangled together: Branches and leaves mingle together in a large heap at the compost facility in Bethlehem. This natural waste will be composted at the facility and can be turned into varieties of soil and mulch.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Rich heaps: Mounds of “garden gold” leaf compost sit at the compost facility in Bethlehem. Many towns, including Guilderland, compost yard waste and leaves that residents bring in, which turns into a nutrient-rich soil. People can also compost on their own property, or simply chop fall leaves up with their lawn mower and leave them on the grass.
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Town-fed: This pile of yard waste at the transfer station in Guilderland will eventually become soil and mulch, some of which will be available to town residents for free. Guilderland has vehicles that vacuum up fall leaves that people pile up curbside, making it easier for people who want to clear their lawns.
ALBANY COUNTY — As autumn sets in, people will be picking up their rakes and heading to their yards to clear their grass of a suffocating layer of leaves. Maybe, this year, more people will grab a lawn mower, or, instead of sending the leaves to their town, keep them right at home.
The benefit most people see to removing leaves from their property is that the grass can get more moisture and sunlight. However, composting leaves and making them a part of your lawn can be more beneficial than removing them.
For those in Albany County who want the leaves gone outright, many towns provide their residents with convenient ways to clear leaves from their property. New Scotland picks up bagged yard waste, which then goes to the Bethlehem compost facility for composting.
Guilderland has a truck that vacuums up leaves piled curbside from mid-October through the end of November for residents of the town and the village of Altamont.
Residents can also bring their yard waste to the town’s transfer station for free.
Guilderland piles collected leaves into a designated spot so they can decay into something usable as topsoil.
Bob Haver, foreman of the Guilderland Highway Department, said the town has been doing this for more than 30 years.
Whole leaves, once placed in a compost pile, need to be turned every so often to keep the composting process going.
Gregory Wier, superintend of the Guilderland Transfer Station, told The Enterprise about how Guilderland handles the volume of leaves and yard waste the town receives.
The town has contracted with Gallivan, a company based in Troy, to grind up the material once the pile gets large enough. It then becomes what Wier calls “rough mulch,” with pieces about four inches or less in size.
About 100 to 120 yards of this mulch is kept for town residents to get for free from the station, while the remainder is further screened, processed, and turned into different mulches by Gallivan at its facilities.
“If you look at past history, it used to be the norm to just burn it,” Wier said of leaves and other yard waste.
Since outlawing the burning of leaves in New York in 2009, the Department of Environmental Conservation has put out a plethora of information about composting at home and what people can do to clear their lawns of fall leaves while helping the environment.
“It’s better that it’s being ground and re-used,” Wier continued. “It’s a better process than what used to be done years ago.”
“Leaves themselves break down fairly quick,” Wier said.
When dealing with whole leaves at home, he said, you can rake them into a pile on your property and, over time, they “will create their own dark, rich soil.”
The pile must be turned about twice a year, he said, because, “down inside the pile, it gets warmer, that’s what helps break down the leaves,” and shifting the contents helps to “keep the pile working.”
He estimates that a pile of whole leaves will take three years to fully break down, but, after the first three years of composting, you will have a new batch of nutrient-rich soil for your garden each year.
Marty Teumim, a Master Gardner with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, advises people to use chopped-up leaves rather than whole leaves.
Flat leaves may attract worms or rodents, which get underneath them, she said. No matter the state of the leaves in a compost pile, which she calls a “heap,” Teumim agrees with Wier that the pile needs to be turned every so often.
“It needs to be able to get air, water, and bacteria,” she said. “And the bacteria will come by itself.”
She added that compost piles don’t freeze in the winter, as their internal activity self-heats them.
Piles can be just that, piles, but they can also be put into compost bins, which Teumim said are available in a variety of sizes and a range of prices.
Also, a compost bin may be made by forming poultry wire into a cylinder shape, Teumim said.
People can also use chopped-up leaves as mulch in their gardens and lawns, not only for compost.
“You don’t really need to do that,” Teumim said of removing leaves from yards, “but, if people do, at least they live on.”