I do a lot of that too. After all, it's the way nature does it, for the most part. Compost piles are a human creation.

Both systems work well for me, I use a lot of weeds,grass clippings & pine straw as path mulch. The annuals will take the path if I leave it uncovered. And always mulch the beds with burlap bags or Fall waste.

Depends on what I am trimming/deadheading - if it has seeds it goes in a black plastic bag to anaerobically compost. Other weeds go in the compost and woody stuff goes in a pile in my compost area and will be either shredded or hauled out to the back-40. I'm still thinking about making biochar with woody materials but it's low on the job list right now. I've often, when weeding, hidden small weeds in the back of the bed where they don't show.

Which is better? Cutting the plants down and hauling that material to your compost pile so later you can haul the, now finished, compost back to the garden, or just cut them down in place and let the Soil Food Web there digest that and return the nutrients to the soil. Really six of one and half a dozen of another.
Now then, cutting down the plants will cut down on the places insect pests can overwinter, as well as places the beneficials can overwinter, so is fall clean up better then waiting until spring?

I am always torn about the overwintering insect issue. I don't want to leave garden soil bare, but if I cover it with leaves or compost piles, it gives bugs a protected place. What's a gardener to do?

In my woodland garden, I pile the leaves up - Bugs overwinter, but thrushes and towhees eat them in the spring.

good question... but exactly... what's a gardener to do? i leave some of the "winter interest" plants around, but not too much stuff.

I do keep an eye out for the preying mantis egg cases on the old stems. I usually get a handful of them each year and and just wedge them in the fence boards by the garden for next year. Besides that... i suppose other eggs are getting left in the chopped up bits and left on the ground.

Sometimes it becomes a matter of function. I use compost bins not because I enjoy hauling OM to them and then back to where needed, but because I don't have enough unmulched bed space to pile all of it up. And in fall, in those areas where I do have room, with the wind around here I would have to collect my many leaves and re-collect them until a couple of good soaking rains matted them down.

Stuff digests quite well in the piles and is ready for use when I need it and the bins give me the control I need.

Seems it just depends on your situation...

hortster

I do very little fall clean up, preferring to wait until spring. Snow cover is unreliable here on the coast but the winter winds can be vicious, so I want good cover for the plants.

I don't cut down most of the perennials in the fall either (unless the dead stalks are really ugly) - by spring they'll be down anyway. Birds enjoy the seedheads and insects they find, and brush piles/ornamental grass heaps give them a place to hide from hawks. I also pile compost, leaves and pine needles on top of the beds for added protection.

In the spring I'll remove the top layer if it interferes with new growth (bulbs, etc.) and bring that to the compost pile. That's when I cut down anything left standing.

I live year long in a rural area where the summer people migrate away, so there aren't many complaints about messy yards.

Claire