>> I don't make enough compost to amend my beds but I am trying to continually top-dress with shredded leaves.
Mulch is just a slow form of sheet-composting! The organic matter in your leaves will wind up in your soil, and deep in your soil, eventually. Worms and eluviation carry small particles and dissolved material downwards.
Also, top-dressing with "browns" doesn't cause nitrogen deficiency in soil or root zones. If you had turned the same amount of chopped leaves under and mixed them well, bacteria would make your root zone a "Nitrogen-free zone" until they finished digesting all the excess C in the leaves.
