On Thursday, 8 November 2012 13:29:35 UTC, Another John wrote:
Hi



Last year I was asked to look after a large, rather wild, garden for a

friend. There is about 1/2 acre of grass: it's rather rough and ready,

and undulates all over the place, but it's kept cut for playing on

(rather than as a _lawn_).



It's surrounded by trees, and this year there is a fairly heavy carpet

of leaves all over the grass (mainly due to its having been so still in

the last week or so, when the leaves started to fall).



I've made a start on raking up the leaves (which I don't mind doing),

but I'm thinking: is this worthwhile?

Would it be better to leave them in order to provide protection against

frost snow and ice?

Or better to clear them, to prevent the underlying grass being killed by

a sodden blanket of dead leaves?



BTW I have access to a ride-on mower, but it doesn't collect: mulches,

or throws to one side.


Definitely not on borders - more harm than good.
On fine lawns yes,
On rougher areas it depends on the air circulation on your site, in many places the wind will do a lot to help by blowing the leaves into certain areas where they can be picked up more easily. Or better still it will blow them into borders where they can be safely left for nature to deal with.
In my borders many bulbs are already just showing or nearly so, cyclamen or flowering or soon will be, there are self sown ornamental seedlings all over the place and messing about beyond uncovering anything that needs to see daylight on those borders would be very damaging.

Rod