A cheap and easy way to collect leaves from your yard or down the street is to use a lumber tarp. The lumber yards get them on their loads to protect the wood in transit. See if they have any extras. Tie a knot in one end and loop it around your bumper hitch, or slam it in your trunk. They are very durable and when worn throw them out. My neighbors are trained, (or me), when they rake their leaves to leave them at the curb and I pull them down the road and compost them in BIG piles. My record is 7 tarps at a time. And 47 tarps in a week. Quite a sight! I sprinkle alfalfa meal and dry molasses (bacteria food) on the piles and then water. I have planted winter rye in them and they germinate and grow well into the winter with the bottom heat. My record is 136 degrees on a 10 degree Janurary day. The cover crop is to poke holes in the leaves to decompose quicker. Buckwheat is a good summer cover.

Man that's a cool idea! And I thought I had some funky ideas about mixing composting and green manuring techniques!
I'll have to try that!
Thanks!

Schmiddtoo, do you have the leaves all spread out, or are they piled? How thick a "layer" would they be?

And can I get dry molasses at a farm/feed store, which, I assume is where I could also get the alfalfa meal?

I usually just pile em and mix with grass clippings and kelp meal and food scraps. But it takes a lot longer to break down than I'd like. I mean, it's mostly "done" by the next season, but your method sounds faster and better.

Thanks. Always love to learn new methods of doing things. Any further info, I'd be glad to hear!

gardenz