Making compost in place

Here's something I haven't seen too much of in previous years - after mowing the lawn in the fall and dumping the clippings into the garden beds I'm starting to find...

BROWN LEAVES!  From OUR OWN TREES!

Our trees are finally getting some size after being in the ground a enough years, and I'm actually starting to see circles of brown leaves around them now that fall has arrived.  Not a ton, but definitely noticeable when you look out the windows.  I'm actually surprised these leaves didn't get chewed up more by the mower.

Still - the leaves from our own yard aren't really going to amount to much.  The good news is that a neighbor, who's house is set back into the woods (where ours is completely distanced from the woods) piles all his leaves up into the side lot for me.  Once the pile gets big enough, I go down there with the lawn mower and some Rubbermaid tubs, and finally chop up all the leaves then bring them back to add to my beds.  They've really helped improve the soil over the handful of years I've been doing this...