Or at the very least, compost on the soil and leaves on the compost. That's what I do, although I often blend them with some grass clippings so they do compost more during the winter than leaves alone. Basically I put the most composted material in contact with the soil and the least decomposed on the top, and if there are intermediates like half finished compost, that goes in between. You want the compost nutrients and humus incorporated into the soil and not washed off or whatever. And the uncomposted stuff forms a good mulch to insulate the surface and allow the worms to work later into the fall. Having said that, I will admit I've never tilled in leaves, only compost and sometimes (early on when I was desperate) I tilled in half done compost. Now that my soil is really nice, I do the layering described above. Just my two cents.

PKponder, fun topic. I am thrilled to read about so many member either composting their leaves, returning them to the woods or donating them to urban compost. Leaf mulch and leaf mold are gold. Before we had a mulching/bag mower, I would rake our many leaves (we're in a clearing in woods) and transfer them to a 10x10 tarp, then drag the tarp to the edge of the property where we had our various leaf and compost piles. Now we have a push-power walking mower that can mulch or bag. I like the way the mower shreds them -- I can get more leaves into the ba attachment. I walk the mower down back, then empty the full bag of choppedhardwood leaves into an ad hoc "leaf corral" -- a 6 ft. Tall haphazard enclosure of cattle fencing that stay upright. By late spring, the leaves have flattened down to about 1/3 the volume. I also mix/layer some of the mulched leaves into the garden/kitsch vegetable waste compost pile. I can use the broken down leaf waste or compost for mulch and or turn it over into my garden soil. The worms appreciate that. Years ago recall (circa 1966) people in suburban areas burning piles of raked leaves. October football games on the radio and the fragrance of slow burning Leaves -- there's a few memory locations for that. Environmentally, not good to burn leaves. Thanks to the organic gardeners, Rodale and mulching enthusiasts, then the environmentally cluey. We also have a large revolving brush pile over our banking. The cottontails, snowshoe hares and opossums relish that. Lots of stone walls, but the chipmunks, deer mice and deer ticks are a bit of a pain in the butt -- too many deer ticks.

The discussion should spend some time on why you have unshredded leaves and how to shred them even more. Unless your home is on a totally paved lot where you have no reason to compost you likely have a lawn and mow it. You can use the mower to shred the leaves and you can use it chop them into dime size pieces with a lot of of dust. If you rake your leaves and don't have a bagger you can still use the mower to create windrows of leaves which you then rake up. This way you get the benefit of the grass adding its green matter to the compost.. If you use a mower with a bagger you could still take the bagger off and run over the leaves to get them chopped finer. You might want to consider running thru the middle of the lawn and chop that first. Also run around any beds and the edge of paved surfaces before you rake or blow the leaves from there. That will keep you from having unmanageable piles to mow. If you want a smaller leaf size go over the entire lawn without the bagger attached. Maybe multiple times. Then put the bagger on and clean it up. I'd recommend bagging out the entire lawn. Whether you're raking it up after mowing or chopping and bagging you'll be making much smaller compost piles; but you'll make less trips to the compost piles and the piles won't shrink as much. To get the dime size pieces I let my bagger fill up and then keet going thru the lawn working toward the center. Since the bagger is full you'll be picking up leaves and clippings and pushing them to the exhaust side of the mower deck where they'll fall to the ground. Work in a circular/oval pattern pushing those leafs to the center by overlapping the last pass so that they get picked up again and shredded some more. With this method you'll be able to sit on your mower and do the entire lawn no matter how thick the leaves are; well almost. One disadvantage of this method is that there will be a brown color to the lawn from the dust but this will build up your soil over the years.

It snowed here, a different part of Chicago Suburbs, off and on. Theres a first time for everything. About a dozen Jr High age kids all in costume and very polite traveling in groups of 2-5. Also 2 little girls with parents who live a few houses away.