Golden Leaves to Garden: What Are Your Fall Prep Plans?

What is more beautiful than a thick layer of golden leaves on a back porch? Before they get too soggy or crisp, I'm going to transfer them to be leaf mulch on my back yard garden to hopefully nourish and warm the soil. The other hope, however, is to block the spreader weeds that love shooting under ground from other areas into my garden. Last year I waited too long to put the hay mulch down, and did a few rounds of weed pulling before finally throwing down the hay. And even then, throwing down hay around sprouting vegis was also enough of a kick-myself action to get ahead of it all this year!

What are your plans? Do you turn old stalks into compost? There are still bunches of tomatoes on the ground that the squirrels have been enjoying, so I put those in a pile in the very back.