Leaves: Great compost, great fun

On a nice Saturday in Autumn, you can clean up your yard, let the kids jump in piles of leaves you rake up, and build a compost pile to make your garden healthier.

There's a slight chill in the air, the brown, red, gold and orange leaves are falling... It's a great time to rake up those leaves into piles and let the children have some fun. Fall is my favorite season. In North Carolina, the leaves in the mountains are absolutely awesome. As a child, my family always visited the mountains for our family vacations. I remember in the fall when the leaves stopped falling, our mother would send us all out into the yard to rake leaves.

After we raked the leaves into great piles, she let us jump in the leaves to our heart's content. Then we raked them back into the piles and eventually hauled them away.

But I have found a better solution than hauling the leaves away or burning them... Give them back to the earth as God intended. Make a compost pile. Simply take your leaves and put them into a wire bin, add food scraps or other garden waste, then soak well with water. Turn it occasionally over the next weeks using a shovel or pitch fork (or whatever you have.) Adding some hay will help retain water if you have some. As your pile turns into dark, crumbly compost, simply remove it to a storage bin and start fresh with new materials. Add this rich compost to your garden plot for healthier, happier vegetable gardening! Use it for your potted plants. Feed the earth, and it feeds us back.

What a beautiful circle of life.

Have you jumped in a pile of leaves lately? Or taken a walk through the woods? Take a drive and check out the magnificent fall colors. These beautiful leaves are dying. But in their death, there is beauty as they "go out in a blaze of glory," and in their death, there is life. When they fall to the earth, they decay. In the process of decaying, the leaves enrich the earth. It's awesome and amazing how everything works together in this earth. The more I learn about the intricate details of this universe; the more I believe in my Creator.

But whatever you believe, it is clear: Human beings need to respect the earth's -nature's -balance.