I wouldn't shred them if they are that fine. I have all kinds of leaves I use for mulch in the winter (okay, I don't rake good!LOL) and I've never shredded. Some rot away easier than others, which I'll bet is the reason behind shredding.

Mowing leaves with our riding mower grinds them up. I then blow them into the beds.

I use my lawnmower to grind them up. I keep mowing in a circle so the leaves are thrown into a pile in the center. Then move them where ever I need them. When ground up, the winter winds don't blow them around as badly.

Mulched leaves make great mulch. I chop up maple leaves every year.
We have a mulcher mower and a lawn vac mulcher that we use and then winter protect the roses with them. I would not think you would have to chop up the willow leaves unless you are finding they are blowing away.

Even if they are not shredded, they will eventually rot and decompose. Nature does not shred leaves.

I also use the mower. After running over the leaves a few times they windrow tito a pile, and are pretty finely shredded.

George

I use both shredded and non-shredded. I collect the big bags of shredded ones from my neighbor's curbs after their lawn services do all the work for me LOL! (just took my hand cart across the street today, matter of fact).

I also use a lot of non-shredded leaves. They decompose just fine, I've never had any problem with smothering of plants or huge mold problems, etc. I either have DH just rake them onto the beds, or he bags them for me and I spread them around when I have time.

There are any number of discussions of this subject at the Composting forum, including the best kind of mower for shredding leaves.

Oh, gosh. I'm gonna have to show how new I am to this. ... I thought using non-composted leaves on flower beds was a real no-no.

A possible downside to using intact leaves is if a too-thick layer of large leaves (like maple) creates a soggy mat that takes a long time to break down and prolongs the period of damp, cold soil in spring.

Keeping the leaf layer to no more than a couple of inches or so and/or mixing in other mulch materials would help avoid this problem.

I have used a dedicated leaf shredder (sort of like a string trimmer in a drum).

I also have a leaf shredder as described by eric_oh, see it at Gardeners' Supply (URL below). Price has gone up $30 since I bought it two years ago.

(http://www.gardeners.com/Deluxe-Electric-Leaf-Shredder/default/32-933.prd)

I like to shred mine because the mix contains a lot of oak, which can be very slow to decompose, tending to mat when it gets wet. In fact, the shredded leaves I use for mulch (including the pine needles I get from my neighbor, who coudln't be happier when he sees me out raking his yard) are the only soil amendment I use, except for some bone meal scattered in the spring and fall.

- Steve

I leave most of my dead perennial and annual foliage standing through the fall and winter (except for peonies and a few others that look especially ugly and spindly). There are lots of seed heads out there for the birds, and the foliage provides places for beneficial insects to winter over.

Although the neighbors might think it looks messy, I like the way it looks and the foliage catches lots of leaves that blow into the garden and serve as a protective mulch over the winter.

I should point out that I don't have a problem with moles or voles though. My cat catches a bunch of those!

This year, we raked leaves into piles, and I plan on using my push mower with the bag on it to shred up the leaves and catch them. Then I'm going to empty the bag into black plastic bags to store until spring.

In the spring, I make a mulch for the gardens by mixing up municipal compost, shredded leaves, chopped salt marsh hay, and some dolomite lime. It is reasonably attractive, breaks down by fall, and adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil.

In the back where the garden is, the ash trees lost their leaves first, and were all raked up and now gone. The corkscrew willow still has about a third of its leaves left. Since the leaves are narrow, and curly, I have not seen them mat. If I could use those instead of buying bark mulch that would be great! The only thing I have to mix in would be mushroom compost. Would that be good or bad? I would think it would hold too much water.

Our lawnmower has been drained and put away already, so I can't shred with that this year.

Personally I find shredding leaves to be a waste of energy. They do not work for me as a mulch that stays put unless you fence them in or pile something heavier on top of them. They're best in veggie gardens or perennial gardens that won't be cut back until spring so there's something to catch the leaves. I have too many leaves and not enough patience to shred them anymore. If you want to do that, you could use a mower with a bag attachment, a string trimmer in a garbage barrel, a leaf blower/mulcher or a dedicated leaf shredder. Leaves are a great (and free) organic additive to your soil though, so you should find a way to use them. I prefer to compost as many as I can (whole) and use them after they've broken down. That's so much easier. What falls on my beds stays there and I'll either work them into the soil come early spring or add them to my compost piles. I'll compost the perennials that have died back, too. While leaves are a good insulator, I agree with the matting comment and too many aren't a good thing. Any heavy accumulations of leaves should be raked out or spread around before it snows.

So far I've been quite pleased with the shredded leaf concept. Last year I had to buy a new tractor, and after much thought, splurged on a bagger. The old tractor was, um, old, and finding attachments specifically for it wasn't easy. It ended up as parts for the dealer's brother.

This year I'm quite glad I have it since between my health problems and DH's schedule, they would still be out there otherwise. The tractor is both raking the leaves and hauling them where they belong. They haven't blown at all, but we have had nothing but rain since I finished. My only complaint is that I can't just dump a bag in the perennial bed since the plants are too close together, and I'll end up smothering too many crowns. So instead of going in the perennial beds, the leaves went in the shrub beds. I do still have a bag of pine needles in the garage that will go in the perennial beds if it dries out a bit. In future years I will understand the job a bit better. This year I was on a tight schedule and just wanted the leaves off the lawn.

Well, we raked the corkscrew willow leaves into the perennial bed. My husband asked me several times if I really wanted to do this: it's the opposite of everything he normally tries to do out there. It's rained several times since. I checked yesterday; and so far, no matting, and not excessively wet. There are still airspaces between the curly leaves.

We left about 4 inches of stem on most perennials to make sure I could find them again. I asked him to leave some things standing (following guidelines in the Well-Tended Perennial Garden) but I guess it didn't look neat enough for him. We did not trim the daylilies (a few got done "accidentally").

I'm not sure about the "covering the crown" thing. Should I make sure all the plants are exposed at the center? The spreading things like the geraniums would then leave lots of ground exposed. Things with evergreen leaves like heucheras: leave exposed or covered? They are rather short: I think the wind may move the leaves over them even if I don't.

It would be impossible to keep leaves off the crowns of plants because the wind is going to toss them around anyway. Don't worry about it. People get overly concerned about this stuff. My mom never rakes her beds in the fall and we have to remove a lot of wet, heavy oak leaves in the spring. Her beds are completely covered all winter and no worse for wear. I don't like doing it that way and prefer to compost what I can now. But I can't say her garden has suffered any - only my back! Once the crocus appear go out and check your beds. That's when the sun is getting higher and stronger and a lot of new plant growth will soon be emerging.

I have a toro superVac as well as the leaf shredder. The Toro serves two purposes: it blows the leaves into piles and then I can use the leaf shredder or the vacuum attachment to shred the leaves. Most go on my beds and some into a compost bin. In my woods I generally blow the leaves off the paths into the woods on either side. When I get old (I'm now 79) I may forgo the shredding, but its invigorating to get outside and work. In my rock garden plants where I have a stone mulch the vac or blower serves to remove the leaves from these beds. The leaves that naturally fall into the beds or on my woodland plantings are left and in the spring the Narcissi and trillums come up through them.