I stronglt believe in leaving the leaves, but rake them out of pathways and into beds
I don’t rake. A few years ago we got a heavy snowfall just after most of the leaves from five big maples were down. It looked terrible when the snow left in the spring, but then the grass came through and looked great. Now I just mow the leaves and leave them.
thats what i do and most often are rotted by spring. no need to fertilize your grass but we dont have oak here either.
I actually got a leaf sweeper that I pull behind my electric ride-on mower so I can not only pick up my own leaves but pick up the neighbors’ leaves (with their blessing) as well. I bring the leaves home and suck them through my electric leaf blower/leaf mulcher. I then distribute the chopped leaves on every bed I have. They saved all of my plants through our months-long drought. The lawn looks beautiful and the beds are nourished with healthy mulch.
If I left them whole, they’d tend to mat and be anaerobic. They can also become quite slick if they’re not chopped up. I used to buy mulch, but it got to be too cost prohibitive and I learned that it’s dyed and not good for the environment. Leaves are good and are returning nutrients to the soil and microorganisms living within. I also found that they are a great medium in which to grow mushrooms, too. Also, they’re free. I guess I like the happy medium of sweeping the lawn, but then “fertilizing” the beds with them.
Some leaves do get mown in, but when the depth of leaves gets to be six or more inches worth, I get out the sweeper. It’s a tool I don’t use for long each year, but it has saved me hours and days of labor and soreness. It’s a job I actually like to do now! I have a one acre property in town and as I get up in years, it takes me longer to do things, so I’m always looking for ways to “work smarter!”
I agree with all of this! And, to your point about shredding them: I didn’t run the mower over the bags and bags we “stole” from neighbors last year. It’s often windy here, and so many blew away or onto the one maintained grass area. Then, it rained and rained. By the time I finally went out to rake them up again, there were many dead patches of grass. Also, the dense layer of whole leaves provided a wonderful habitat for the pill bugs and slugs.
if youre gonna mow them just do it early. waiting for bugs to sleep in them and then mulchin em up is not good LOL
I usually let the lawn grow longer and use a leaf vacuum and mow at the same time. Then dump the clippings and leave. By the following fall I’ve got some amazing compost. I can’t just leave them as then they end up in a pond which causes other issues with too much organic decaying matter.
I do a combination of mow/mulching and blowing them off my patio and into the forest tree line. So many bugs use the leaf litter, I feel like I am keeping the moths and fireflies alive in my neighborhood while most everyone else bags them or makes piles near the road to be collected. It’s less work putting them back into the ecosystem. 
I work on estates where landscape crews treat lawns like living room floors and mow and blow weekly. They keep mowing for weeks after the grass has stopped growing, scalping the grass as close to the ground as possible. Once there is adequate leaf fall, they can replace this silly enterprise with the weekly leaf roundup. Scalped lawns do not thrive under leaf cover- but probably would benefit from it once the weather turns cold and less provoking of fungal infections.
Even in neighborhoods where homes are somewhat scattered as lots are measured in acres and not square feet, the sounds of 2-stroke leaf blowers are a continuous assault on tranquility during leaf fall. Now the tonier neighborhoods are starting to ban gas powered leaf blowers but almost no one rakes anymore. Electric will soon replace all 2-stroke gas blowers. The crews now sometimes power up their batteries from the properties where they use them. I doubt the clients get a deduction for that.
I stop mowing my lawn in late summer and it only grows enough after that to create a seed crop and send stronger roots into the ground, thus stabilizing the soil for upcoming freeze-thaw events. It also keeps it healthy enough to withstand any issues with leaf cover. The winds blow most of the leaves off my lawn anyway and they collect under bushes and other obstacles to be raked up in spring… one time. I maintain 3 acres with no leaf blowers. My leaves end up being used as mulch or in compost.
snarfing–Absolutely, I usually am out there every day for a little while, and sweep them up in less than 24 hours from when they’ve fallen for just that reason.
If I dont collect my leaves… the guy that mowes my yard and orchard simply mowes them in.
I have 4 maple trees in my yard and I like to collect those and put them down as a mulch layer around my fruit trees.
They get wood chips early spring… green chop and drop over the summer and maple leaves in the fall.
All that just turns into compost around the tree.
Maple leaves are known to be higher in Calcium than most leaves and they break down much faster than something like oak/hickory.
My backyard is surrounded by large oak and hickory… and I dont bother collecting those… they get mowed in… or winter winds will blow them over into the woods.
I will use mixed hardwood leaves… but only after they have been on the ground for a year and are well on their way to breaking down into compost.
I collect woods compost too… over winter and have done a post or two on that in the past.
It is a great add to the garden or fruit trees.
This is what woods compost looks like.
TNHunter
jealous as usual.
I just ordered enough poultry netting to cage off what will be my new garden location next season so that I can bring in the leaves everyone else in town is trying to get rid of. I’ll take a string trimmer to them to break them up. Over the years it will hopefully add some much needed organic matter into the sandy acidic loam that I’m working with.
I raked a small amount of leaves today under one of my maples. Not a lot has fallen here yet.
Got enough to mulch 3 fruit trees some.
That is my IKKJiro.
TNHunter
This is what I do too. Simply rake the leaves around the trees. By spring they are broken down into dark beautiful earth!
My neighbors love to hire landscapers to scrape their yards clean. And then hire the same landscapers in spring to add compost to their beds.
The noise is overwhelming at this time of year.
The high frequency of many electric leaf blowers is not much if any better than the noise of gas-powered.
I have a guy who vacuums and somewhat chops leaves from a literal antebellum mansion down the street - he drives the little mower a block to me and dumps them. Saves him effort of loading and hauling off.
Most of the leaves blow to the yard edges along the woods by the time the snow really starts accumulating. But those that remain get mowed into the ground in late fall. The only leaves I tend to bag and dump are the pear leaves since I have a couple of trees prone to scab. If I leave them to rot in the ground all winter the leaves look like a mess the next season.
Grass still seems to be growing. I mowed a couple today which had gotten pretty tall (the seed stalks were probably over a foot). Yes, I don’t maintain lawns to the same level the estates do 
I generally just mow the leaves in with the last mowing of the season. At some properties I blow them along a fence or wall, and that helps keep the weeds down for the next year until I get more free leaves…I hate weed-whacking, so a nice leaf bed lets me mow right up to the leaves next year. And I often have a row of trees along the fence, so the leaves help with them too.
I’ll also blow off the parking areas when mowing, as tenants (one in particular…) have complained about slippery leaves if they are allowed to stay long enough to rot.
My hybrid mini-van has an inverter, so I can plug in the charger and it powers up from the main hybrid battery (not the small 12 volt one). I also ran a corded electric roto-tiller from it one time, when planting a (small) corn-field at a rental.
Why collect them in the spring? I sometimes push leaves under bushes. It’s the best place for them, as it helps keeps weeds from growing. Nothing I detest more than a weedy vine that tangles through hedges or bushes.
I never collect leaves, but the town where most of my rentals are doesn’t pick up loose leaves. So, everyone has to bag them up. I can then drive around and pick up bags of leaves from the side of the street. They are very convenient for mulching fenced gardens. Once everything is done for the year, I just add a foot of leaves. No need to weed next year
Same, except I don’t bother to break them up with the trimmer.
Exactly, I’ll ride over the ones in the yard-yard, which mostly means I blow them into a central pile under the trees, but once it gets cool, they stay wherever they are.
On the other hand, if I ever had enough to kill off every blade of grass in my yard, I’d be happy. I’d rather have the “weeds”. Most of them are edible, and even though I don’t eat many of them, the bounty of them seems to be preferable to the critters hereabouts over most of my garden - except strawberries and blueberries; they rarely leave me those if I don’t net.