In the late fall, we rake up all the leaves and cover the flower beds with them.  This has two benefits, we tell ourselves:  One, the plants living in that flower bed get a nice blanket of warmth which protects them as winter sets in; and two, we don't have to rake, bag and deal with the elimination of leaves - especially since our county no longer offers curbside leaf removal.  Since we are lazy, lazy, lazy, this is extremely attractive to us and that laziness has a lot more to do with the decision than any idea, misguided or otherwise, that it's better for the plants.  In late winter/early spring, we'll often get a shipment of mulch delivered to the house and just cover all the leaves with it, hoping to help further decompose them and add some nutrients to the soil.  But again, it probably doesn't really do all that much for the soil since we are not properly composting anything.  Gimme and L... gimme an A....

This year, The KingofHearts bought a compost bin and is trying to do that kind of a thing, so he raked all the leaves off the flower beds to put in the composter instead of purchasing top soil or mulch.  

These little crocus shoots were sticking up out of the ground under the leaves and because they hadn't seen much sun yet, they were almost translucent.  It took a couple of days for them to green up, but it was fun to watch their progress for about three days.