When I moved into my present house in 2003, I took on a leaf problem of much larger scale than I had dealt with before. 36 old-growth trees on 2 acres. The first year, I tried raking and bagging. Then I tried blow, rake, and burn-in-place. Then I bought a mechanical lawn sweeper. None of these were acceptable, and for the first 5 years, I only got rid of my leaves once before the snow came. The rest of the time, the leaves ended up laying on the lawn under 18+" of snow pack until April, by which time, the grass was dead under the matted leaves.
Then I started mulching the leaves with my riding mower, and I've never looked back. I watch the accumulation of leaves under a tree, and when there is a layer that hides the grass, I mow around the tree in a spiral pattern to mulch the leaves in that area only. When a tree has really started to drop its leaves, I get out every couple of days, whether they are wet or dry. This is my fourth year of doing this, and my lawn has never looked better. My neighbors may think I'm crazy mowing circles in my lawn in a heavy coat, but at least I'm not breaking my back raking leaves all the time.
