You need to make holes in the bags or nothing happens! Also the leaves need to have some moisture - dry ones just stay as they are! Could take two years.
A post on here recently said sycamore leaf mould inhibits seed germination - worth remembering.
Can't see why you shouldn't use some to put over your cyclamane but I'd chop them up a bit first or at least wet them so they don't blow all over the place when its windy - so frustrating!

RHS advice is that sycamore leaves need to be shredded before you bag them up for leaf mould. Best leaves are oak, beech or hornbeam.

Exactly. Look up sycamore and 'allelopathy'.

But if like us you have sycamore and ash....make the best of it.

Thanks everyone - typically the council came round and swept the street last Friday. I may manage to gather up one small bagful if I'm lucky.
I'll be quicker off the mark next year.

The recent gales have piled up leaves at our back gate and in the car port - Bulba will be busy with the leaf hoover again...

Any comments please comparing leaf blower and leaf vacuum.. ? Thanks.

Aren't they the same thing Terra? You can either suck up the leaves or blow them away depending on the setting you use...

I was talking to a gardener working outside the local Coop and he said the blower he was using did only blowing nothing else..
... he said the ones which vacuumed up the leaves weren't much good because they became clogged quickly .. I just wondered about yours and Bulba's experiences with them... thanks..

We had one that did both but it didn't last very long, and I couldn't use it anyway because i wasn't tall enough and the bag dragged on the ground...

Seems they should put height requirements of buyer on the packet ;o)

Works fine for us, we've had for years. I can't use any more as gets too heavy for my back when full of leaves but Bulba still does. Mind you he also goes down to the local car park and rakes all the leaves up from there and barrows them back to the leaf mould bins.

True TT - or perhaps they could supply stilts with them.