Question
I would like to ask your advice on something that we are not agreeing about at home.  Namely, that we have not raked our leaves this season and they are still on the ground.  We are the only home on the block and one of a few houses in the neighborhood that did not have them raekd up this year.  I won't tell you my opinion on this, currently we still do not agree on if this was the right action. It may seem small but it is causing a lot of arguing.  What do you say, rake or not to rake?

Answer
Why not propose a compromise? Rake up the dead leaves and collect them in a Compost Pile.

Dead leaves are loaded with value.  They're high in Carbon -- the Brown segment of the Carbon:Nitrogen ratio that Compost Connoisseurs cook up in their piles of decomposing garbage.

Dead leaves also curry favor with Earthworms -- especially with Anaeic kinds, which accelerate the decay of Leaves by digesting them, converting organic Nitrogen into plant-friendly Ammonium or Nitrate forms.  And you know how much I LOVE Earthworms.

Along the way, Microbes provide backup cycle support, pushing Nitrogen out of dead leaves and into the Soil -- the Nitrogen Cycle.

Provided of course you have microbes.

Without enough of those, Carbon is safe, but Nitrogen vanishes, and the C:N ('Brown' to 'Green') ratio shoots up.  I could go on, but I think this probably makes the point.  Any followups, I'm all ears.