Chelle, the leaves do make a great mulch. My yard had flower beds all the way around it, with lawn in the middle. I just left the leaves in the flower beds, but HAD to get them off the lawn, because they killed the lawn if I didn't. Raking is almost impossible, because of the small size. The only way to really get them off the lawn was with a leaf blower. The only problem with that is that it was almost impossible to direct them when they took off flying! It just seemed to blow them to a different area, without actually cleaning them up. We had to get the leaves wet first, to make any progress, but it never really worked well. I HATED that tree, even though it was really pretty!
