Recycle Your Falling Leaves...
    Make compost!

When you rake up those leaves, do not dispose of them in the garbage. Compost them.  This is really very simple once you understand how it works.  Basically, you want the leaves to decompose so they will enrich your soil and improve the soil texture by adding humus.  The easiest way is to leave them where they fall, which is really only practical in a woodland setting or a shrub border.  The leaves of certain trees are toxic, such as Eucalyptus.  They prevent other plants from growing nearby.  Evergreen magnolia leaves are heavy and waxy and take a long time to break down unless they are broken down in a shredder.  But most leaves break down over winter and only need to be cultivated into the soil below come Spring.  If not incorporated into the soil, they can be a fire hazard when the surface leaves dry out next summer.

If the leaf drop is too heavy and you have lawn or perennials beneath the trees or shrubs, the leaves should be raked up and composted in another location.  If you only have a small amount of leaves, you can compost them in a heavy plastic trash bag with a little soil and fertilizer added.  The soil contains organisms that break down the leaves and fertilizer speeds the process.  Manure is a good, non-chemical fertilizer.  Use cottonseed meal if you intend to use the compost in your vegetable garden.  Leave the bag in an inconspicuous place and turn it d every week or so to mix it up.  Make sure the contents are moist, but not wet.  It should be ready to spread around in your garden by Spring.

Large quantities of leaves can be composted in out-of-the-way piles or in bins.  The simplest bins can be made of cylinders of heavy wire.  Others can be built of redwood and commercial bins of all sorts can be purchased. The center of the mass decomposes the fastest, so stir it up to get even decomposition.  Earthworms help the process too.  Your reward will be good rich soil and a better garden.