I think that some people have more land to work with, and are willing to wait longer for finished compost. We have a large maple tree in our front yard, and the city of Madison is not very prompt at picking up leaves left on the curb. It makes sense for me to rake them into a windrow, and chop them up with the lawnmower. This reduces the volume considerably, so when I put the chopped leaves on the compost pile, it ends up being 6 feet high, and 8 feet in diameter. That's a pretty big pile, for our yard. The finished compost goes on our garden plot, in May, when I dig out the pile. If I lived in a rural area, on a larger plot of land, I might rake the leaves into a pile, and just let them sit for a few years, until the compost was ready to use.

It's very easy to pick up the leaves with a bagger on a mower and the shredding is just a bonus. (I hate raking)

Shredding also helps those of us to store more material. Whole leaves take up a lot of bags and space but shredding can bring that down to like a 10:1 ratio.

Probably more reasons but those would be my top two.

Lloyd

Ha ha Lloyd. I hate raking, too. I do use the bag on the mower, but most of my leaves end up still whole.

As far as using lots of bags go, the inner child in me loves to fill the bag, sit on it to compact it, add more, sit again. I can get quite a few leaves into one bag and it's fun =:)

I don't chop the leaves. But then again, I have three large bins and plenty of greens to mix in. Your method sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Especially if your inner child gets to have some fun :)

I chop them up so they don't smother the grass. I run the mulching mower over them and leave them where they fall to add nutrients and organic matter to the lawn.

I do it for speed---and for pretty. I can't think of anything prettier than a handful of chipped leaves unless it's a handful of leaf mold---the prettiest thing on earth.

Aside from composting them, I also use them for mulch. In terms of composting they obviously break down faster - especially oak leaves - when shredded, and I need for my compost to be ready to amend the garden beds by the following fall.

In terms of the mulch it simply looks great IMHO.

{{gwi:196914}}

tiffy, that's very pretty.

Your mulch reminds me of the humus in the woods of the northeast (New York, Connecticut). Healthy, earthy stuff. And the trees sure seem to like it.

Chopped leaves are less likely to blow around than whole leaves, when used as mulch.

Shredded leaves are easier for the Soil Food Web to digest then are whole leaves and they tend to stay put better when used as mulch then do whole leaves, less surface for the wind to grab.