The research was carried out on the typical lessive soil (Haplic Luvisols) in a young apple-tree orchard consisting of trees of the Elstar Elshof variety on the M9 stock. The trees were planted in the Spring of 1997. The impact of littering the soil with different material (black foil; wheat straw; needled cloth) on its enzymatic activity and on the changes in the content of mineral components in the soil was investigated. Soil maintained in a herbicide fallow with Simazine was the control site. The average activity of dehydrogenase, phosphatase, urease, and protease in the soil littered with straw and cloth was higher that in the soil from under the herbicide fallow. Only in the soil from under black foil the average activity of the investigated enzymes, except protease, was lower than in the soil from under the herbicide fallow. Three years after planting the trees, in which no mineral fertilization was used other than nitrogen fertilization, the use of non-organic litter decreased the content of phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium; decreased the content of organic carbon; narrowed the C:N ratio; and increased the soil acidification. The greatest changes in the content of mineral components were found in the humus horizon of the soil under non-organic litter. In the case of the wheat straw litter, there was a decrease in the total amount of nitrogen in the soil and the C:N ratio increased. The content of the ammonium form in the soil of the investigated combinations was higher than the content of the nitrate form of nitrogen. Opposite tendencies were observed only in the case of the black foil litter.