The crunch crunch crunch of fall leaves also comes with a few other unwanted sounds - the roars of leaf blowers or the teeth-grating sound of rakes on grass.

But before you sweep all those brown leaves off into the gutter or into a plastic bag for the dump, consider keeping them around to use in your garden.

You can bag up the leaves and keep them into spring and summer to add to your compost pile, said Flowery Branch gardener and beekeeper Bob Bradbury.

"Collect the leaves and put them in bags," said Bradbury, who has a composting system in his backyard. "I make them available and as I make my layers, I just sprinkle them in."

By layers, Bradbury means the layers of "green" and "brown" products he adds to his compost pile. By layering items like leaves with kitchen scraps and manure, you get a rich compost to enhance your garden.

If you don't have the room to construct a few 4-foot-by-4-foot boxes for your compost like Bradbury does, you can simply collect the leaves in black plastic bags and let them sit.

In a year, you'll have leaf mold, which may sound like some kind of tree fungus but is actually a great addition to your garden soil, according to Jan Pierce, owner of Pierce Landscape Designs in Gainesville.

"Basically what you do is, when you're using your lawn mower around your yard, you get the leaves up, you throw them in large 39-gallon black plastic bags," Pierce said. "If they're dry, put a little bit of water in them. Tie up the bags with the leaves in them, poke some holes, cover and wait about a year."

After they've had time to sit and rot, open the bags and spread the molded leaves around your garden for a good soil amender.

"You'll have yourself some nice compost leaf mold, which is good for the soil," she said. "Leaf mold is rich and nutritious. It's a good top dressing for soil and plants, including acid-loving plants."

According to Hall County Master Gardener Wanda Cannon, there are two alternatives to simply discarding your leaves - mulching and composting. Each serves its own unique purpose.

In composting, the leaves decompose over a certain period of time, and adding other products into the mix - such as manure or egg shells - makes the process go faster, giving you compost by spring. Shredding makes the process work even better, she said; Bradbury said he uses a shredder and has compost in as little as two weeks.

Leaves that are used for mulching don't have to be thoroughly decomposed; rather, they serve as a weed suppressor and a barrier between your soil and heat, cold or wind.

Bottom line, while mulch is best used by sitting on the surface, compost is best used by being worked into the soil.

Pierce said she has several spots around her yard where she will stack a few bags of leaves, storing them away for future use in the garden.

"I have these little areas in my yard toward the fence, and I just put them in there, bag 'em up, as soon as I get a chance," she said, laughing at how busy she's been. Because of that, she's neglected the leaves in the yard.

"But I know they'll still be there when I get back."