Horticultural aide memoire
No.44: Make leafmould
When all the autumn leaves have fallen (they make lovely patterns on lawns), rake them into piles. Collect them up, ideally with a pair of boards, and fill barrowloads. They squash down quite nicely. If the resulting volume is small, put the leaves in with the compost, but if you have large quantities, stack them, ideally in rectangular bins filled evenly. Pack the leaves down and cover.
It takes time, but the resulting dark material can be quite beautiful: open-textured, even, light, and a joy merely to handle. It is the shrub mulch of champions. Oak and beech are best.
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The century-old enamelling technique used to create Van Cleef's lucky ladybird brooch — which has something in common with Country LifeThe technique used in the jeweller's Geneva workshop has been put to good use in its latest creation.
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