What do you do with leaves that you rake up in the yard?
a. burn
B. compost
C. let them lay there all winter
D. let somebody else worry about them
E. don't have leaves
Personally, I mulch them up and take them to a little wooded spot behind the garden and pile them up to rot. Then next year, I can use them for compost on the garden, and to mulch plants in the yard. I figure burning them stinks up the air too much, and if I just leave them in the yard, they will kill the grass. I've been composting them for 30 years. I still have a bunch of leaves in the back yard, but the front is mostly clear now. The compost pile is about 30 feet in diameter and four feet high. It will be 40 feet across by the time I finish. Since I chop them up with the lawn mower, the pile is rather dense right now. They will settle to about two feet deep by January, and will be packed so tight I'll have to loosen them up with the tiller. They won't rot if they can't get water and oxygen. By the time the growing season starts, I'll have dozens of wheelbarrow loads of rich black compost.
That makes for a better garden and it's good exercise too.
Howard