How to Make Leaf Compost

I don’t want to think about how much money I’ve spent on leaf compost as a gardener. Why? Well, because we don’t have many trees! And the few trees we do have…I just leave the leaves where they fall to decompose.

But not everyone can do that. Some people live in neighborhoods with by-laws requiring them to rake and remove their leaves. Including some of the neighborhoods around us (but thankfully not us!). So what happens to the leaves in those neighborhoods? We pick them up and take them home!

I’m going to walk through one simple way to make your own leaf compost at home. It isn’t hard—it just takes a bit of space outdoors and some time. So let’s get started.

Supplies used

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• Leaf compost bin
• Leaves
• A space outdoors
• Garden fork or shovel

Step 1: Unroll bin & lay flat

There are many, many different ways to make compost. This is just one way. We have three of these awesome bins in our backyard. Two that we fill with yard waste, and one that we are using for leaves only.

The bins are made of a flexible but sturdy plastic with a bunch of holes in it for ventilation. They are bottomless and easy to set up with a turn-key approach. I love these because they give you a big bin to keep all the leaves from blowing away while also allowing for excellent airflow.

They are kind of a pain to set up if you don’t unroll the bin and let it sit for a little while, though. So I recommend that as your first step—just unroll it and get it as flat as you can. Then leave it alone for a day or so to let it loosen up.

Step 2: Form circle & insert clips

Next you’ll form a circle with the bin and use the turn-key clips to hold the circle in place. Make sure you have 6 to 8 inches of overlap on the ends. There’s a bit of flexibility on the size you can make, here. But I go as big as possible!

This step isn’t hard, but it can be tricky to do on your own. I did it by myself, but it would have been much easier with an extra set of hands to hold things in place!

Step 3: Place & fill with leaves

Once you’ve secured all the keys, it’s time to put the bin in place. It’s very lightweight, so you can just carry it. We have ours in the back of the yard along the fence.

And while the bin is lightweight, I have never been afraid of it blowing away. As long as there is at least a few inches of waste in the bin, we haven’t had any issues. You can always use a few landscaping pins to help pin the bin in place when you first put it up, too.

We had about 20 bags of leaves from our friends, so I dumped 8 of them into the bin. Then I dumped a few buckets of water in. The next day, the pile had compressed enough that I was able to add two more bags. I repeated this process of adding leaves and water for a few days until I was able to get 14 bags of leaves in the bin.

I’ll plan to mix the leaves up with a garden fork or shovel every few weeks and add water to the bin during dry spells. Otherwise, I’ll just let mother nature do her thing this winter and next spring! Hoping we’ll have some good leaf compost to use by June or so. Cheers to free leaf compost!

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