Everywhere I walk these days I see leaves. Big brown leaves cover the sidewalk under the old sycamore in front of our house. The lightest breeze now sends fading redbud, apricot, peach and plum leaves spiraling down to the ground. The persimmon and grape leaves hang on a little longer, their colors changing from green to yellow and then deep red and orange. In a couple weeks they'll let go, leaving the branches and vines prepared for a few months of winter rest.

You could think of all this falling foliage as just another mess to clean up, but that would be a shame. Dry leaves are a powerhouse of nutrients for your soil, containing twice as much mineral content as manure. Decomposed leaf matter, often referred to as leaf mold, can also improve soil aeration and drainage while providing a feast for all the good microbes doing their work underground. And all it takes is just a bit of effort to turn that pile of dry brown into garden gold.

To keep all of your beautiful leaf pieces in one place, I suggest a simple structure. Step 1: Unroll about 6-8 feet of chicken wire and bend the wires from the two cut ends together to form a ring. Step 2: Fill the ring with leaves. I told you it was easy.

When you're ready to build your leaf pile, keep a few things in mind:

• Use freshly fallen leaves as this is the stage when the nitrogen and mineral contents are highest

• Shred or chop up dry leaves before adding them to your compost pile to speed up decomposition. A basic chipper/shredder is a good tool for this. Or, if you still own a lawn mower (what?), you can run it over the leaf pile.

• Avoid adding black walnut and eucalyptus leaves which contain a natural herbicide that can affect seed germination of other plants.

If you already have a composting system in place (you garden rock star!), you can also add a moderate amount of shredded leaves as a brown ingredient for your brown and green recipe.

On the other hand, if you're not ready to commit to building a leaf mold pile, we won't judge. Gather up those leaves and spread them at the base of your trees and shrubs as a layer of mulch to protect the soil from winter rain and cold. As with any mulch, you want to keep the leaves away from direct contact with the plant itself to avoid crown rot. In spring, rake the leaves back to allow the soil to warm up more quickly.

If what you're looking for is an excuse to party, leaf it to me. See what I did there? But seriously, in Japan, where I lived for a few years, the farmer I worked with would celebrate the falling of the leaves, known as ochiba, with friends and family. Everyone spent the day collecting leaves for compost and then shared a meal, and maybe a lot of beer and sake, around a roaring fire. Just one more reason to not kick those leaves to the curb.

by UC Master Gardener Cayce Hill

This article first appeared in the November 25 issue of the Morgan Hill Times.