Hello, Trumbull County. The leaves are starting to fall and with them comes a lot of fall cleanup. With the drought this year, the leaf fall has been slow and is spreading out over several weeks.

The gradual leaf fall has been great if you are a fan of mulching the leaves back into your lawn with the mower. Fewer leaves on the ground allow for better mulching without overloading your mower. If you prefer an even cleaner-looking lawn by raking up the leaves, the drought will drag out the chore even longer.

Leaves contain essential plant growth nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and others. Penn State has found that the leaves from a large shade tree contain approximately $50 in plant nutrients if you had to purchase them. You can return these “free” nutrients to the soil by mulching, leaving them on the ground to decompose naturally or by composting them.

Composting leaves allows you to take those nutrients and apply them to your garden, lawn or anywhere that needs a little extra fertilizer. Some people feel overwhelmed by composting, but with a little patience, you will eventually get some beautiful dark compost full of organic matter. Without turning your leaf pile, you should expect it to compost in about six months to a year. Larger piles will take longer to break down than smaller piles. If you would like to speed up the process, you can see results in as little as six weeks with regular monitoring and turning of the pile.

The key to successful composting is getting the carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio correct and turning the pile weekly. For the most efficient decomposition, a ratio of 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen (30:1) is ideal. Most leaves contain more carbon, with ratios of 40:1 to 80:1. By adding additional nitrogen to your leaf pile, you can accelerate the composting process.

You can add more nitrogen with fertilizers such as urea (46-0-0), manure or blood meal to get the C:N balance correct. Sometimes it can be difficult to determine if you need to add more nitrogen or more carbon. If you turn the pile every week but don’t see any progress of decomposition, you likely need to add a bit of nitrogen. For a small pile, a cup of urea fertilizer mixed in will provide a good jump start.

Adding too much nitrogen will also slow down the process. If you notice that your pile has a strong ammonia smell when turning or if it heats up very fast, you may have too much nitrogen. You can correct this by adding cardboard, wood chips or more leaves to balance it out.

A compost pile should heat up to between 90 degrees F and 140 degrees F to effectively break down plant material. An active compost pile will heat up when the microorganisms grow rapidly as they decompose the leaves, but they will slow down if there is not enough oxygen or food to consume. Turning the pile introduces fresh oxygen to keep the microbes happy and it stirs up the leaves to ensure the microbes can access it all.

I’m a fan of composting — it’s a great way to remove leaves from the lawn but also capture nutrients and organic matter that can be returned to the soil. I try to discourage the practice of burning leaves, especially in a drought.

Beers can be reached at beers.66@osu.edu.