"Honestly, if someone messed around with anything in MY yard without asking, I would take great offense and assume that they knew they had just fired the opening shot in a war. Maybe that's just me."
Nope, not just you, Rick...
All I can think about as far as the leaves go is
compost!! If I couldn't rake them up myself (after talking to the neighbor, or course), and could get someone else to do it for free, I'd have them brought to me. Those leaves will turn into garden gold -- making compost is the best thing that ever happened to my plants.
