yes of course its very natural

I try to get as many leaves off my lawn and onto the flower borders. Any clumps of leaves sitting on grass creates dead patches of lawn as there's little or no light underneath

Yes, it depends how many leaves there are. A thin scattering will be taken underground by worms and do good but a thick layer will keep out the light. Lawn grass is less vigorous than grass in the wild becaus it is kept mown short and so is less robust. We mow off the main lot and compost them and leave the last stragglers.

Absolutely not, unless you want a lawn with bald patches next year - collect them up and compost them separately by using black bin bags, poking a few holes in the bottom, tie the tops and stand them somewhere out of the way till they rot down into rich, black material which can then be added to your borders and beds.

I take all the leaves off my lawn and compost them. As an aside I cut my grass last week...it was very wet but the grass had grown so much I decided to anyway. I raked over the lawn and got a lot of dead thatch out.....it looks fine this morning.

well all I can say is the cut commonland with trees all round it looks fine after 50 years . iid just mow it in unless of course you want a putting green or play cricket . admittedly if teres loads then maybe you could take some off . its good round your plants too as natures mulch . I use them round my tree firn every year and my schicad

True, it makes a brilliant mulch once it gets wet (if you do it dry here they just blow back onto the path...)

even snow is quit a good mulch

I'm afraid I'm with Bamboo. If there are lots of leaves, collect them and bag them or make a chicken wire cage and leave to break down. If there are just a few then a light mow with a hovver will chop them and add to compost heap with grass cuttings. I should wait until it gets a bid dryer. Yes, in nature the worms and fungi will break them down but leaves can be a problem in a formal garden and a haven for overwintering slugs and snails.

well we are all different and I live with nature rather than trying to fight it and have snails and slugs living happily in my garden but if you want a formal unnatural bowling green then you should take everything out and keep it just so . in that respect your right if that's what you want .

Yes slugs do like leaves on the beds - but then, think about the blackbirds who love digging in them for treasure!
I don't put mine in bags - they rot a lot faster chopped up and left in a heap - they are useable by the following autumn - have just finished using ours up.

i rest my case sg x

Bowling green is what we haven't gt here NP! ;-)

cool

I would run a mulching mower over it a few times, and maybe add some compost starter, to speed decomposition.

good thinking tb