There's garden gold in them thar leaves...

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This photo taken Nov. 8, 2009 shows a pile of leaves. If leaves are so abundant that they would smother the lawn, go ahead and rake them, but not into piles for burning. Instead, rake them beneath your shrubs. A blanket of leaves there keeps the soil from washing away and exposing delicate feeder roots. That blanket of leaves also keeps the soil warmer in winter and cooler in summer. The result: your shrubs will grow and look better. (AP Photo/Lee Reich) The Associated Press

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Sometimes the nose can put the heart at odds with the head. Burning leaves was a common practice years ago, and that smell can bring up sweet, childhood memories of watching leafy mounds that had served as forts and hiding places disappear into flames and fragrant smoke.

But burning is no longer an acceptable way to deal with leaf piles. Once your brain gets the upper hand, you start thinking about air pollution, the ozone layer, smog and out-of-control fires.

There are much better things you can do with your leaves than burn them, even if you're not an avid gardener.

Just running over them with a lawnmower a few times might shred them enough so that they filter down into the lawn, to the lawn's benefit.

If leaves are so abundant that they would smother the lawn, go ahead and rake them — beneath your shrubs. A blanket of leaves there keeps the soil from washing away and exposing delicate feeder roots. That blanket of leaves also keeps the soil warmer in winter and cooler in summer. The result: Your shrubs will grow and look better.

For avid gardeners, leaves are an asset of which you can never have too much. As far as nutrients, leaves are not much different in composition from much-touted horse manure. And as leaves decompose, they become increasingly able to sponge up water — something to think about in August as you haul out the hose to drench your roses for the umpteenth time.

The fluffiness of leaves, as they decompose, also helps aerate the soil — something roots always appreciate.

The easiest way to go about tapping the benefits of autumn's bounty is as described above: Just rake them beneath shrubbery. If you're short on leaves, rake them beneath rhododendrons, mountain laurels, blueberries and azaleas first, because these shrubs appreciate them the most.

After shrubs, next in line for leaves are perennial flowers. Benefits in the perennial flower bed will be similar to those for shrubbery; in addition, the leafy mulch will prevent alternately freezing and thawing soil from heaving small or poorly rooted plants out of the ground in coming months.

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