At this seasonal juncture, being that it is December 7, the leaves that were on your yard have most likely been raked, bagged, and fully disposed of. Otherwise, you will undoubtedly be raking leaves up from a fully saturated lawn; many of the leaves by this time have essentially become stamped onto the lawns.
No One Likes Raking Leaves
Raking leaves is an arduous task that routinely requires hours of reluctant commitment. For some people, the leaf raking process is a lengthy one, completed in multiple stages that can over time involve the filling of dozens of plastic bags. It is practically a rite of passage each fall season to have the opportunity to stuff two-ply plastic garbage bags with nature's annual litter dump.
I regularly witness individuals, even as recently as three days ago, pulling out the lawnmowers in an attempt to at least mulch the remaining layers of leaves. One of my neighbors had a special bag attachment to his mower, which sucked up the leaves, eventually dumping the leaves into plastic bag-lined garbage cans. Being familiar with the layout of this particular neighbor's yard, I was tempted to ask (more like urge) that he utilize a more environmentally sensible method in which to discard his leaves.
As speedy and effective as mulching leaves can be, how efficient the overall process can be depends in large part on the horsepower of your mower and whether the mower does in fact have a mulching blade. Chances are, your mower's specifications are not conducive to aesthetically, and hence, successfully mulching leaves. That a lawnmower typically does not properly shred the leaves, thereby leaving behind large pieces scattered throughout your lawn, is only part of the problem.
As unsightly as those unattended pieces are, the more pressing concern is that these same fragments eventually (come springtime) "bleach out" your yard. The pieces that are left behind prevent your lawn from sufficiently aerating, which is tantamount to starving the grass (ground) and therefore "killing" your yard. Once the snow melts, it is revealed that your lawn is brown, with loosely rooted grass and a lot of work ahead in order to bring your yard back to good health.
Raking Doesn't Have To Be Wasteful
There is a better, more attentive means by which to dispense with your leaves, although it still requires your actually having to perform the dreadfully laborious task of raking. What I have done is identify certain "dead spots" throughout our yard, particularly those under larger pine trees where grass (and any other vegetation for that matter) generally does not grow. These are indeed wonderful spots to transport leaves.
Furthermore, thanks to a couple of other backyard neighbors who each unilaterally decided to erect displeasing six foot tall fences, we now have available to us a lengthy barrier that not only provides cover for our "illegal" compost pit but also the vast majority of leaves that we in due time cleaned off of our property. A natural median between us and our neighbors to the south provides a supplementary repository, which prevents any one pile on the property from growing too large.
What basically happens is the piles flatten in short order, as both gravity and assorted creatures feed on the arboreal harvest. Usually within a few weeks, one would ever know that there had once been vast mounds of leaves scattered all through the back of our property. The best part of all is that not a single plastic bag was used during the continuous process. Besides, I got a few terrific workouts out of the deal.
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