At our dacha, my brother always rakes the leaves into a big pile by the fence and leaves them until spring - he says beneficial beetles spend the winter there. And I collect some of it and throw it into compost, especially from apple trees. What are you doing with them?
I also have apple trees on my plot, so I always throw their leaves into the compost - they rot well and there is no smell. And what is made of birch and maple, I just rake it under the currant bushes, let it lie as mulch. Halyna's brother is probably right about beetles, but my neighbors complain that mice crawl out of such a pile.
At our house in Athens we don't have a forest, but in the small garden behind the house I collect the leaves from my old mulberry tree and put them directly into the compost. They don't smell and rot nicely. The ones from the apple that Galina says I also keep for compost, but the ones from the oak I push under the bushes as mulch, like Yuri does.
I also have apple trees in my country near Lviv, so I always put their leaves in the compost, just like Galina and Yuri. And from the pear and plum I rake under the currant bushes - let it lie, in the spring the ground will be softer. But I don't keep a pile in the corner, because mice like to make nests there, I've already tried.
In my small garden here in Seville I collect the leaves from the orange trees and put them in the compost like Galina does with the apple leaves, because they rot well and do not smell. I leave the olive tree ones under the rose bushes at the entrance as mulch, just like Yuri did with the birch ones. What Sergey says about the mice reminded me that last year I found one in the big pile, so it's better not to accumulate too much.
