At the moment my leaves have been mulched by the lawn mower and are in bags on my patio waiting for the ground to be frozen before I spread them. I wait for the ground to freeze because that is what the experts say and it seems to work better. That I learned from experience.

I have the most luck keeping the leaves in place in the areas that I have left tall stalks and stems. I don't clean my garden until spring so that the leaves will stay in place. I also like to see the stalks and stems above the snow.

The one spot I always have problems is also the spot that I get a lot of winter dammage. A hill that gets enough wind that both snow and mulch blow away so the ground is typically bare. I can't put bags of leaves down because they roll down. After 6 years of trying various plants I have settled on sedums they hold on by themselves.

LOTS of leaves! And some compost around the roses. We keep them down over the strawberries and the raised bed with chicken wire. For the one un-hardy rose I have we make a cage of wire around it and fill that with compost and leaves - works great and they stay put. Elsewhere, it's quantity! Not an issue when you have a GINORMOUS silver maple in your back yard! Half the mulching is done for you :)

-Marie

zen... if you're still interested in addressing that hill issue, you might try half-filled bags; they won't roll down the hill so easily. You could also use cut-up wire hangers to make prongs that would hold them in place.

prairie... the experts do say to wait until the ground freezes. I'm required to recommend that when I'm wearing my Master Gardener hat. However, in my own garden (and not speaking as an MG here) I do it when it's convenient. Funny how often convenient happens before the ground freezes! lol I have had excellent success in avoiding winter kill, but then I also grow mostly beautiful natives and not those 'particular' plants so much.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Last year I left the leaves where they fell in my garden-and that seem to work fine for the most part.

I did lose a few plants to rot however-including a geum, a couple of small grasses, and a small endless summer hydrangea.

Lesson learned: zone pushing + less than perfect drainage + unshreaded leaf mulch = death.

Thank you for the suggestions. I have to admit to being relieved that leaveswave puts it down "when its convenient" . Me too. Meeperx, the rot is my biggest concern, having never used leaves before. I am planning to pull it off as early as possible in the spring and hope that works. Currently I really don't have any zone pusher plants, and I think the drainage is pretty good. I'll be crossing my fingers though until I see all those gorgeous green stalks poking up.

I thought my leaf blowing problem was about to be solved as it snowed most of the day today. However, it has now turned to rain. Who knows what we'll have by morning.

Thank you everyone.

Ann

Nice thing about leaves is that you only wind up raking about half of them off! The other half (mostly already broken down) you mix into the top layer of your soil as compost and soil conditioner. It works wonderfully!

-Marie