You can get lots of input about this on the soil forum. I have a skookum electric shredder that turns them into fine mulch, and it stays on the beds just fine. I'm planning to put a layer on my lawn as well. Many recommend running your mower over them to shred them. Or they can be simply stacked in a bin of any sort to rot down; this will take many months or years.

I am lazy gardener, when leaves fall from my trees I sweep them onto my flowerbeds. I have oak leaves which are hard to break so they do not become heavy. I do not clean in the fall so leaves are contained by foliage/stem of the plants and majority manages to stay put.
You can shred your leave by lawnmover, special gadget or just leave them be. You can leave them in the bags and create new beds with them coming spring.
By the spring my leaves are half way decomposed and I remove only the worst clutter, leaving most in place, cover with good black compost to make beds look better and by mid summer process finished only to be started next fall.

We collect leaves and mulch them in a shredder. Afterwards we bag them up and store them for use in the garden and flower beds in the Spring.

We have so much debris blow into our yard through out the winter that this is the only way we have found to work for us.

Spring cleanup of the beds means not raking off mulch we put on in the fall but just what ever came in from the neighbors.

I keep telling my H we should pick up the leaves from our neighbor to the north but he put his foot down on that idea. I think we need more mulch than he does!

Connie

The smaller they are shredded the better they stay in place. Usually they're only shredded once, but if I'm feeling ambitious sometimes I'll double shred some of them. It also helps to soak them with the hose immediately after spreading. I leave the roots of most annuals in the ground to rot and feed the soil organisms, cutting both annuals and perennials a few inches above the soil line. This also helps to snag the leaves and keep them in place.

Since I started this practice of mulching with leaves every fall my worm population has exploded. I have networks of huge worm tunnels in my beds. In spring it's hard to put a shovel in the ground without chopping a worm in half.

After mulching all planting beds I start hoarding leaves for next year's composting. I use three 32 gallon garbage cans to store leaves over winter. If shredded first, that's quite a few leaves. I'll also have an empty compost bin for more if I get enough from the neighborhood. Before I got the extra compost bin I used lawn bags to store extras.

I love leaves!

Karen

Put the leaves in a trash container and use the weed eater to shred them. Works like a charm.

PC

I'd kinda like to try that thing with the trash container and the weedeater...sounds so violent!! But I probably won't.

Our yard is surrounded by thick woodland - oak and hickory mostly. The leaves fall down and clog my flower beds. And I let 'em. I just leave them there till spring and then I have to do one of my less favorite chores - clear all the leaves out of the beds and dump 'em on the compost heap. I think the leaves offer some protection against freezing. I could be wrong. But it allows me to put off the chore till spring.

I just throw them into the beds and top with straw.
{{gwi:447652}}

If you have a mower with a bagger, you can dump them on the lawn, shred them (with perhaps a bit of grass mixed in) and them dump the bag where you need mulch. I find this a little easier than the string trimmer method.

We're doing leaves tonight. I'll tell H about the garbage can and weed eater. He may want to try it. We usually power shred, then bag leaves for spring use.

Connie

One more question about the leaves. I got a free load of 1 1/2 year old horse manure (had to load with a shovel..I'm sore). Would it be alright to put 2 or 3
inches down on the beds before I put on the mulched leaves??
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Also, thanks a million for the previous responses.
Thanks,
Brad

as long as you do not get too close to crown of the plants you can mulch heavily with old manure/ leaves.
For large areas you might want to cover your perennials with plastic pots and then spred your mulch.

I don't do the manure thing, though many people love it. Some say you should hot compost it first to kill pathogens. Since it's not readily available to me, I don't go looking for it.

OTOH, I just collected another 5 huge bags of leaves. I think they're actually construction bags. I happened upon them today and they called my name.

Karen

Horse manure can be very potent (even when old)....you might spread a very thin layer, but I would be careful. A little goes a LONG way.

Save most of it for a compost bin....