When you and your neighbors collect your leaves, you can compost them, or put them directly into the garden with just a little lime (to offset oak leaf acidity).
Thats what I call free fertilizer, and it will breakdown over the winter and will feed the worms (nature's soil aerator). while adding more humus to the soil.
Yes...leaves have always been nature’s compost! :-)
We have several leaf piles around the yard, encased in chicken wire, and sometimes a kid that mows in the neighborhood, dumps his grass trimmings in the yard too.