{"id":5308,"date":"2026-05-26T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/?p=5308"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:08:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:38:01","slug":"teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/","title":{"rendered":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#8216;Landfill&#8217;!"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wwcxM7XCTiM?si=PLCuZR9PY5dU_L4a\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large teak leaves flying into the courtyard from across the road used to be a real menace for us. We had a tough time disposing them, especially during the hot summer months. Everything changed when we thought of using them for mulching. The large teak leaves were sliced into small pieces and used as a layer of mulch in the containers used for growing vegetables. That was as an eco friendly way of using them or rather recycling them. The teak leaves were quite sturdy and would remain intact for quite some time. They will conserve water by preventing quick evaporation from the soil in the containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday I had posted about my new venture of trying to grow beetroot in our hot tropical region. In the process I learned that beetroot needs a loose soil for the root to form well. Otherwise they will branch off and get stunted. Same is true of carrots, which I had experienced last time when I tried to grow them. Carrots would branch out and I got thin multi-branched carrots rather than a plum single carrot. So I thought of slicing the teak leaves and filling the garden pots with it instead of coco peat. Currently my supply of coco peat has also been exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After filling almost half of the pot with teak leaf pieces, I added soil from old garden pots which were lying idle. To my surprise, the leaves got compressed very much and a lot of space was available for filling again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then I looked around the courtyard and found a few more teak leaves and some other dry leaves as well. They were sliced and added to the garden pot, over the first soil layer. Still a lot more leaves and soil are needed to fill the pot. Though I started with the idea that there were too many teak leaves around, I found that they were not enough to fill even a single 12 inch garden pot. I will have to wait a couple of days for more teak leaves to fly in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimate aim is to try replanting some of these beetroot seedlings into the &#8216;landfill&#8217; pot eventually. As mentioned yesterday, each &#8216;seed&#8217; of beetroot which we get online, is actually a dry fruit with 2-4 tiny seeds inside. That is why you can see several seedlings coming up from each spot. They were quick to germinate, in a couple of days or so. This pot cannot accommodate all these seedling in the long run. I will have to thin them out as well as try transplanting a few. Not sure whether they will grow on transplanting. I am planning to scoop out a group and replant them as such. If they grow up, I will thin them out later depending on  which seedlings are thriving well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Large teak leaves flying into the courtyard from across the road used to be a real menace for us. We had a tough time disposing them, especially during the hot summer months. Everything changed when we thought of using them for mulching. The large teak leaves were sliced into small pieces and used as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vegetables-at-home"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#039;Landfill&#039;! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#039;Landfill&#039;! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Large teak leaves flying into the courtyard from across the road used to be a real menace for us. We had a tough time disposing them, especially during the hot summer months. Everything changed when we thought of using them for mulching. The large teak leaves were sliced into small pieces and used as a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Johnson&#039;s Horticulture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Johnson Francis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Johnson Francis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Johnson Francis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1\"},\"headline\":\"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#8216;Landfill&#8217;!\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\"},\"wordCount\":476,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Vegetables at home\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\",\"name\":\"Teak Leaves for Mulching and 'Landfill'! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg\",\"width\":1202,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#8216;Landfill&#8217;!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/\",\"name\":\"Johnson's Horticulture\",\"description\":\"Johnson&#039;s Horticulture\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1\",\"name\":\"Johnson Francis\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/channels4_profile-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/channels4_profile-1.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Johnson Francis\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@JohnsonsHorticulture\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/author\/jf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and 'Landfill'! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and 'Landfill'! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture","og_description":"Large teak leaves flying into the courtyard from across the road used to be a real menace for us. We had a tough time disposing them, especially during the hot summer months. Everything changed when we thought of using them for mulching. The large teak leaves were sliced into small pieces and used as a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/","og_site_name":"Johnson&#039;s Horticulture","article_published_time":"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1202,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Johnson Francis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Johnson Francis","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/"},"author":{"name":"Johnson Francis","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1"},"headline":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#8216;Landfill&#8217;!","datePublished":"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/"},"wordCount":476,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg","articleSection":["Vegetables at home"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/","url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/","name":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and 'Landfill'! - Johnson&#039;s Horticulture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-26T05:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-26T05:38:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Teak-Leaves-for-Mulching-and-Landfill.jpg","width":1202,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/teak-leaves-for-mulching-and-landfill\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Teak Leaves for Mulching and &#8216;Landfill&#8217;!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/","name":"Johnson's Horticulture","description":"Johnson&#039;s Horticulture","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/c3636df643ae569b05229e17c67a85f1","name":"Johnson Francis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/channels4_profile-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/channels4_profile-1.jpg","width":600,"height":600,"caption":"Johnson Francis"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@JohnsonsHorticulture\/"],"url":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/author\/jf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/horticulture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}