Baltimore Sun file photo

I found my neighbor Bob just outside my picket fence the other day, using his leaf blower in reverse - sucking up, and chopping up, the leaves my husband had swept into the street.

Next, he went into the leaf bags we'd put out for recycling and was sucking those dry, too.

Bob, as you might guess, is a big believer in composting and in using leaves as mulch in his gardens.

I agree. But things are a little tricky at my house.

My husband is kind enough to blow the leaves out of my many gardens and then run over them with his mulching lawn mower, bagging them as he goes.

I use a bag or two in my compost pile.

And then I put the rest right back on my gardens.

My dear husband is so tolerant of all my gardening, but I think this chore maddens him. It is pretty clear I am undoing what he has just done!

There is a school of thought that all leaves must be removed from the garden, to prevent disease and infestations. And of course, there is Bob's point of view: leaves are a gardener's gold.

(Susan Harris does a good job of sorting out these opinions on her Sustainable Gardening blog).

Me? I'm just trying to keep the peace in the house.