Bagged leaves are great for me when I am in a hurry and when I need to carry leaves and grass clippings down to the lower part of the garden. Much easier to drag two bags of heavy grass and leaves than to have to load them into the wheelbarrow. I am picky about what bags I pick up and try to always look inside the bags before picking them up. Still, I do get some bags of just trash(weeds, bermudagrass, dog poop, et.). I sort them all when I get home and any bags that contain things I don't want I just sit by the curb again and let the city pick them up.
I used to pick up a lot of whole leaves by the curb (bagged and unbagged) but now I have learned to be more selective and have discovered that I can pick up all I need that have already been shredded by commercial lawn services and individuals and then piled out by the curb. By being more selective it has saved me a ton of labor and the expense of gas and blades . But, I don't just limit my picking up of leaves to the fall, I pick up a mixture of leaves and grass clippings all year long. Naturally during certain months there are more leaves and during other months more grass, but all though the year with the exception of a very short period I can get a pretty good mix.
I have a small pickup and use my seedfork to load the grass and leaves with, it does not take me long to get a piled up truck bed full. This is also my exercise program and what I spend in gas driving around I save in gym membership fees. I have finally got a place I can just back in and push and rake everything out in a big pile. It only takes a few minutes to unload my truck now, probably less than 10 min. Of course pine straw in this part of the country is also a great asset for the flower beds and the garden and I just picked up a nice clean load, better than paying for it at lowe's.
