by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | As you may have noticed, there is currently no shortage of fallen leaves on the ground. And we at Victory Gardens encourage you to make use of some of them as mulch in your garden beds. Often, they are already raked and bagged by a lawn-loving neighbour next door. They’re just sitting there, ready for the convenient taking.

But what is the purpose of mulching? Well, it’s kind of a big deal for your veggie garden. When you mulch by adding a 2-3 inch layer of leaves over the surface of your soil and around your plants, it insulates your winter crops throughout the cold months by preventing the top layer of soil from freezing. That way your plants can continue to take in water. It also regulates the temperature of the soil, thus minimizing stresses on plants from temperature flux. When the soil freezes and thaws, it expands and contracts, potentially tearing apart all the fine roots in the soil.

Mulching with Fall leaves is essential for good soil structure. Mulch increases soil fertility, encourages earthworm activity, provides aeration, and decomposes over time. So even if you’re simply “putting your garden to bed” for the winter, your soil can benefit from a layer of leaves on its surface. Mulch minimizes soil erosion and compaction from heavy rains, too (some people shred their leaves with a push mow first to encourage faster decomposition).

Ah, but what kind of leaves does one use as mulch? Use whatever you’ve got! We have heard, however, that black walnut leaves are a no-no due to a low toxicity level to other plants, so avoid those if you can.

With a little mulch, most winter veggies can survive in up to -5 degrees Celsius without cover, and the hardiest overwintering plants such as corn salad, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, and brussel sprouts can survive up to about -10 degrees Celcius without cover. Sometimes a little more winter protection is in order. For instance, covering lettuce and swiss chard aids in accelerating growth during the winter months. But this is another topic of discussion involving remay, hoop houses, and cold frames, and we’ll get to that. But for now, we bid you adieu!

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.