Mulch or Bag?

[Szykneij]

I live in New England which is an area of the U.S. that wants to be a forest. Ignore a small area of cleared land for a couple of years and you'll find you have the start of a nice little woodlot. Continue to leave it alone, and before long you'll have a full-fledged forest. That's why at this time of year, even though I can see the Boston skyline from the end of my street, my backyard gets completely covered with fallen leaves.

My solution? Fire up the lawnmower with a mulching blade and smash those leaves to smithereens. The little pieces won't smother the grass under a layer of snow and will quickly degrade and feed the soil. Most of my neighbors, though, feel they need to spend hours raking and bagging their leaves, which are then carted off to a landfill somewhere.


Then, in the spring, they'll pay to have someone come and fertilize their lawn!

What do you do?