Fall leaves can be good or bad, depending on what someone plans to do with them. They can make for great garden mulch and compost, but if the plan is to dispose of them, people are advised to do so responsibly, or they can clog storm drains or create greenhouse gas.
Using fall leaves
WSU Master Gardener Beth Goodnight is a big believer in utilizing the free organic matter in her gardening. Because the leaves are mostly made of carbon, she said their best use is for mulching.
“So when we’re talking about composting, they would be the brown element, the carbon element that we use to make compost,” Goodnight said. “They have a little tiny bit of nitrogen in them, but not a lot. So, they need to be regarded as the brown element, and with that said, the brown element is what mulch is.”
She encourages people to gather up the fallen leaves right away to turn them into mulch.
“We use mulch to help our garden beds keep weeds away and retain moisture,” Goodnight said.
She added that mulch when touching the soil will slowly become compost through a natural process that occurs at what she calls the “horizon line,” where mulch touches the bare soil.
“The microbes can find the mulch from the soil at that horizon line, and the microbes are constantly making that bit of mulch that is touching the soil into compost,” she said.
The fall leaves that people often dispose of are a free resource and a great alternative to bark mulch, the cost of which is rising greatly, Goodnight added. If people don’t have fall leaves on their property, they can plant perennial trees and shrubs that drop their leaves in order to have a supply of mulch.
Goodnight adds that she designs her garden and landscape so that the leaf-falling trees and shrubs are completely contained in the garden and landscape areas, making it less work in the gathering phase.
“However, if your trees and shrubs are too big for your garden and they fall on your lawn, then you do have to clean temp up and here’s where shredding the leaves comes in,” Goodnight explained. “So we like to shred the leaves up to put it back in the garden because they will compost much, much faster.”
By shredding the leaves, it will turn into compost faster, certainly by the end of winter to the spring, Goodnight said. If the leaves are left in full, the compost phase may not occur for an entire year.
A positive aspect of keeping the leaves in full is that the free mulch will last an entire year.
Goodnight stressed the importance of really considering what the garden and landscape needs before deciding on the method.
Disposing of fall leaves
Clark County Public Health encourages residents to properly dispose of leaves if they wish to do so to ensure they stay out of the streets and the landfills.
“Leaves should not be raked or blown into streets,” a release stated. “Fallen leaves can clog storm drains and create areas of standing water on roadways, making roads unsafe for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.”
Instead of disposing leaves improperly, Clark County Public Health encourages residents to use local disposal options that use the leaves to create compost.
“Leaves are a nutrient-rich, biodegradable material. But each year, millions of pounds of leaves end up in landfills,” the release stated. “When organic waste, like leaves, is left to rot in landfills it creates methane, a toxic greenhouse gas.”
Rather than sending leaves to the landfill, Clark County Public Health asks residents to place leaves in their curbside yard debris or organics cart, or in their own backyard compost. Residents can also dispose of their leaves for free through the Fall Leaf Coupon program provided by Clark County Public Works and the city of Vancouver, the release stated.
The Fall Leaf Coupon allows residents to drop off up to five cubic yards of leaves at one of four designated sites at no charge from now through Dec. 31.
Residents can get their coupon by:
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Printing it from cityofvancouver.us/leafcoupon, clarkgreenneigh
bors.org/leaves, or wcnorthwest.com/leaves.
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Clipping a coupon from Waste Connections annual recycling newsletter, which will be mailed to all Clark County residences in October.
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Calling Vancouver Solid Waste at 360-487-7160 or emailing solidwaste@cityofvancouver.us to have a coupon mailed.
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Picking up a coupon from Vancouver City Hall, 415 W. Sixth St., City of Vancouver Utility Services, 2323 General Anderson Road, or Waste Connections Customer Service Office, 12115 NE 99th St. #1830, Vancouver.
The four sites for leaf disposal are H&H Wood Recyclers, McFarlane’s Bark and West Van Materials Recovery Center in Vancouver, and Triangle Resources in Camas. Addresses and business hours can be found on the Fall Leaf Coupon.
The coupons are for residential use only and cannot be redeemed by businesses, the release added. Tree branches and other yard debris are not eligible for free disposal. Leaf loads should be covered during transport, and all bags of leaves will need to be emptied at the disposal site by the resident.
To learn more about backyard composting and for a schedule of free community workshops, visit clarkcountycomposts.org/.
To report clogged drains and street flooding on roads in unincorporated Clark County, visit clark.wa.gov/public-works/report-park-road.
