Now that the leaves are down what can you do with them? You can ignore them and wait for the snow to hide them, you can rake them and bag them in pumpkin bags for Halloween, or just garbage bags, and then discard them, or you can blow them off the lawn to move them elsewhere or to pile and bag them. But if you are willing to look at other options you can put them to use in your yard.
For those who prefer to leave them, a covering of less than 20% of the lawn surface can be shredded with a few passes with the lawn mower, leaving small enough bits to feed the lawn the same way small grass clippings left on the lawn do. A thicker layer of leaves on the lawn will create problems by smothering the grass and preventing growth in spring, promoting snow mould, and encouraging mice and voles to damage the lawn. The thicker cover should be raked or blown into a pile to prevent these problems.
The pile of leaves can then be shredded by a few passes with the lawn mower, with the bag attachment for the final pass. A shredder could also be used, or a leaf blower with a bag attachment that chops and bags the leaves. You could even use a string trimmer in a barrel full of leaves to shred them. These chopped leaves can be used to mulch the flower beds once the ground is frozen, providing some winter protection for perennials and then breaking down and feeding the soil. The ground should be frozen so that the mice will have settled into their winter homes other than in your garden under a cozy blanket of leaves. Shredded leaves can also go on the vegetable garden to be worked into the soil in spring, improving the soil texture and adding some nutrients. You want to use shredded leaves for the beds and garden because a layer of intact leaves can form a compact mat that may not allow water to penetrate.
If you compost you can use intact or shredded leaves in your composter or compost pile. Shredded leaves just break down faster. I like to have a bag or two of leaves accessible so that when I have added a layer of kitchen or garden waste (green material) to the compost bin I can add a layer of leaves to provide the brown material recommended for successful composting. Even easier, bag the shredded leaves in a black plastic bag, add a sprinkling of water every now and then, and in a year you will have leaf compost to use in your garden.
