Nate, it sounds like the following is too late, since your work has already begun, but for what it's worth: We had 4 new roofs (entire house) and everything that that entailed (remove old roofs, put on new + gutters & downspouts) and new stucco siding on one side of the house's addition (hence, remove all old stucco, too). Contractor also created a new profile for the eave over that side of the house; also made and installed a copper overhang for the window on that side. Not all of this was done at the same time; still, a lot of construction materials and debris. Used the same contractor and his small crew for everything. The crew was able to do the roofing job by accessing all the roofs from the patio; the main issue was roof debris that ended up on the ground. They were exceedingly careful and neat but even now, I do find the occasional nail and bits of roofing material. For the stucco work, however, they needed to erect and safely access scaffolding. I asked the contractor to try to protect a daylily bed directly under the side of the house needing that work. For various reasons, I couldn't dig up the plants in it, even though it contained some daylilies I value a lot (eg LAST SNOWFLAKE, NEON FLAMINGO, COWBOY SCARF, MABOU, Jack Carpenter patterns, and more), so he set up the scaffolding on a large piece of plywood that was placed on cinder blocks on either end of the bed (and with two blocks supporting the mid part of the wood). The crew had to access the scaffolding of course, so one end of the bed got badly trampled & the soil very compacted. Even so, given what had to be done to the house, and the time they spent doing it, the daylilies sailed through everything in near perfect condition. There was a lot of bent and torn foliage, but it was late autumn anyway so that didn't matter. Plus, it was the crowns I'd been concerned about. We plan to use the same guys to paint the house's exterior next spring. Since I don't know exactly which month that will be, I expect to have to dig up the entire bed. Even so, I'll ask the contractor to once again place scaffolding on plywood on cinder blocks. The idea will be to protect the soil from compaction so that I can use that bed again as soon as the work is done.

This is pure supposition, but it seems to me that if nothing else, leaves have less carbon mass than wood and therefore have more concentrations of nutrients/minerals per volume and mass than wood. And, as ellatiarella brings out, the decomp rate of leaves is much faster than wood. I agree that while decomposed woody material has benefits ( I use a lot of it myself,) leaves are preferable for both nutrients and turn around time for reentering the soil web. In fact, even in nature the slow decomp of wood benefits carbon sequestration, while the faster decomp of leaves (and more delicate biomass - including grasses and other less durable plant growth) is much more responsible for playing a role in the creation of creating nutrient-rich topsoil. That said... it's also true that any nutrient benefits of composts and mulches are long-term at best. They are not, in themselves, a replacement for situations where fertilizers are needed for optimum plant health.

Mulch, though some folks recommend not within a few feet of the house, and weed as needed. You don’t want erosion. You may need to do some modification of flow if it is concentrated in an area, such as creating a rain garden or dry well or French drain. If there is a slope, use highly texture mulch such as “gorilla hair” or arborist’s trimmings to help keep it in place. Where you want established moss, don’t mulch. However, it will be best for small patches in flat areas since it won’t stop erosion, and eventually will be shaded out by groundcovers IME.

The plants are not biennial the individual canes are effectively biennial, as in deteriorating after fruiting. But there are two different growth modes within that general pattern: the conventional mode where a new cane grows its main stem the first year, then produces side branches that flower and fruit the second year. After which it can be removed. And then there is the second, so called everbearing mode where the first year canes go ahead and produce flowering side branches in the upper part of the cane that first year. Followed the second year by additional side branches appearing and another round of fruiting taking place. 'Heritage' is the flagship cultivar for those kinds that fall within the everbearing category. With it having been suggested that this one is sufficiently vigorous that if the second year crop is not needed 'Heritage' can even be managed by mowing it off with a lawn mower set on high each autumn. Thereby making trellising and selective pruning unnecessary.