Winter mulching with autumn leaves.....for or agianst?

My neighbour's Silver Birch tree gets bigger every year and more and more leaves drop onto an area, in my back garden, similar to that which you describe, which has perennials, but also aubrieta, but quite a lot of sun. Do you think the aubrieta will be damaged by damp, rotting Silver Birch leaves remaining on top of it during the winter ?

proberly could do Terratoonie, because they are evergreen, rotting wet leaves are likey to cause damage on top of anything that stays green, which i think is a very good argument why not to do this, but what i did when spreading all this was dusting them off the tops of anything still green, you could try just removing the leaves from the top of your aubrieta, if you want to give this experiment a go too?

Yes, I'm so very fond of my aubrieta that I will have to go out and rescue the plants from an overdose of Silver Birch. Lol.
Thanks.:o)

I hear what your saying, but I do think that using fresh fallen leaves might cause you a bit of a slug problem especially the little black ones that do live under the soil and love a good old munch. I would wait until they are rotted down...personally. What if we have another really wet year next year

good point Milky, i do use Nemeslug, bio control that i found very effective last year, and given the fact that it is soil based, this may help counteracting this problem, only thing not sure on is how effective the nemeslug would be if aplied to the top of these leaves? will it still make it's way into the soil from there? leaves would proberly help with protecting the micro organisums as they are effected by late frosts, but may have to remove them to get it into the soil. the other thing to think of is, the worms do pull the leaves down as they rot, the layer i have put on is not hugely thick, so maybe by the time my perennials are putting on growth the majority of what is here will have been taken into the soil? not sure on that one. - still not convinced its a bad idea yet.

Well, if it makes you feel any better Maj, half my rose beds are covered with fresh fallen leaves. I don't usually have too much of problem with pests, disease etc. Mind you I do scrape them off and compost them as soon as possible in the spring. They seem to stay frozen mostly over the winter and then I get them off when they start to break down. I find most of the worms are way down lower in the soil over the winter and don't really come up to work on the leaves.

Yes, Gilli, I guess in your colder winters the decomposition might work differently.

now there is a good idea, i could always remove the leaves once new growth starts and i want to aply the nemaslug, and if still too cold to leave them bare aply the B & Q expensive stuff then, but then i would never really know how effective the leaf mulch would have been, - as i would need to leave it until all rotted down or taken into the soil to know for sure. i'll have to ponder on that and see how bad slug damage is to pansies ect when the time comes. but have to disagree with worms not around at mo, when tidying up today, i think i counted at least 10 on a small hand fork full of soil, and i have found leaves half in half out of the soil as well as grasses that are now dieing off that look like they have been dragged into the soil. in areas of the garden that i have just started clearing. i really do have a lot of worms in my garden, although you could be right, not sure on that one.

Maybe in British Columbia the worms dig deeper in the soil because they know it will be c-c-c-c-colder over there. Lol

Good point Terratoonie, i live in Essex, so quite mild here, very bult up area, and clay soil too, obvioulsly mine has been well worked so don't get too many problems with waterlogging, but i do have an awful lot of worms, which is great, i know when i aply any sort of mulch, it does'nt take long to disapear.

I wouldn't do it, Angie. I clear up as many leaves as possible in case of nasties hiding under the leaves. I wonder, though, if forking them in might do the trick??
You are absolutely right about getting the leaves off anything evergreen - can be fatal to the covered-up plant!

Considering that I scarfed up a truck and a half of very compressed cherry leaves, I am quickly mulching all of my trees in pots. We are expecting serious cold this weekend.

Some leaves might smother and compress into a mess, but these Cherry and or Oak leave are great.

One year I accumulated 40 bags of Garry Oak leaves. I was as happy as a squirrel. We had a real arctic express forecast. Evergreen stuff, everything got smothered. It all could be blown off afterward with a leaf blower.

Well nature did it for me. Just before the arctic weather came, so did a windstorm. My leaves must have blown all the way to Pt. Townsend. Might have mulched their plants, but mine were bare and vulnerable.

I can only add, that for the snail or slug problems, the future worm population might compensate you, by their winter and spring activity. In the orchard I lay down copious amounts of leaves and then anchor them with straw. The berries and trees love it. My watering needs are much lower as well.

I am an avid believer in mulching!

Very true about the cold here. The ground is frozen solid at the moment but only down about an inch. Usually by this time it is frozen down a few inches. The worms burrow deeper to get away from the frost.
The leaves I use are mostly from the fruit trees so apricot, plum, apple and pear with a few sumac and chestnut leaves that blew over from the neighbours.
Can you buy a bale of straw Maj? Not hay as that will have seeds in it but straw is just the stalks. Over here it isn't very expensive for a bale and it works really well as winter protection as it doesn't pack down. I use that on my roses too.

I have always thought the same Spritz and removed them, and then mulch with the ready brewed stuff, this is just a bit of an expereiment really, you know how i like to test the boundrys lol. i can quite easierly replace it with proper mulch in a week or two, just though it might be worth an experiement, and yes Skylike good point some thing i had'nt considered, - the wind, i could end up with them all over the garden again, and Gilli, good idea, but considering i'm in the London area, not too many farms or stables around here, would have quite a drive to get some, - but i good idea.