of leaves with other plant residues to keep the leaves from packing and inhibiting aeration. Decomposition can be hastened by occasionally adding soil and fertilizer between the layers of litter, applying a commercial compost activator, watering the pile during dry spells and turning it over occasionally with a spading fork. However, if you let nature take its course, the results will be just as good, although it will take longer.
Where a conventional pile is impractical, much of the garden litter can be salvaged through ``direct composting.`` This simply means working the litter right into the soil instead of putting it on a pile.
For example, you can rake the leaves around ornamental shrubs, trees and hedges and between the rows of perennial beds, then turn the leaves a few inches under the soil. The decomposing leaves will enrich the soil, and the spading itself will have a beneficial effect. After there is a freeze, additional leaves can be used to mulch these plants.
Also use leaves to cover garden areas where you intend to make late plantings of woody nursery stock and spring flowering bulbs. This will keep early frosts from penetrating the ground until you finish planting. Rake the leaves aside when planting, then replace them as a winter mulch.
By far the best way to use even more prodigious amounts of yard refuse, including leaves, is to compost it directly in the vegetable plot and areas set aside for summer annuals. To do this, dig trenches in the plots about 2 feet deep and as wide as you like, piling the dirt between them. Then fill the trenches with leaves and other plant refuse, sprinkle some fertilizer over all and cover with 6 or 7 inches of soil.
Within a week or so, the plant residues will be compacted by the initial layer or soil. Add more soil as the residues continue to settle to keep the trenches full to the top. By spring they will have decomposed sufficiently to be mixed with the soil in the plot, thus improving its texture and fertility for the new growing season.
All plant litter will decompose more rapidly on the compost pile or when turned under the soil in direct composting if they are put through a shredder first to reduce their bulk.