This is the best time and the worst time. This is an era of warmth, an era of frost, an era of colorful colors, and an era of withered brown.

This is autumn in Kentucky. With our ever-changing continental climate, at this time of the year, we may have 70 degrees one day and more than 20 degrees the next day. Our annual plants seem to exist forever (about six years ago, I actually cut the last rose from my garden on Christmas Eve!) or they might succumb to premature freezing. Autumn leaves can enter Thanksgiving in a few years (almost like this year), or fall brown in October and die due to drought.

But no matter what the analogy you choose, at this time of the year, there is one thing as reliable as death and taxes... Seemingly endless leaves are flooding, covering the ground. What comes with falling leaves is the problem.

Do I blow or rake, rake or mulch, bag or compost? So many leaves, so many questions. So let's break down one problem at a time.

This has both sociological and horticultural answers. Blowing leaves is a bit like watching a soap opera on TV. If you ask a person full of the room, "Who watches a soap opera", you can bet that no hand will go up. If you gather all the humans on the earth in one big room, and then ask... the same result. However, they continued to broadcast.

After all, someone must nominate Susan Lucci for an award such as the 57th Emmy Awards!

The same is true for leaf blowers. Everyone hates leaf blowers. Everyone hates noise. When this topic comes up at a neighborhood dinner, everyone rolls their eyes. Then everyone went home and pulled out the blower. Some people wear masks to avoid detection. Others threw the local gardener under the bus (well, I never use a blower, but that gardener...) and some people turned on the faulty hardware early on Saturday morning, At that time, the others were still in bed, too tired to run to the window to identify the offending neighbors.

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Although I also hate the constant noise of nearby leaf blowers, I have to admit that they are very useful on some narrow or bushy beds. I will do it...

When it comes to gardening, a rake is definitely better, at least for your lawn, if not for your back. A powerful raking of the lawn (or two, three or four times, depending on the situation) not only removes the leaves, but also helps loosen and remove some lawn thatch-the constantly accumulating layer of dead grass may suffocate over time lawn.

Of course, some people recommend leaving the leaves on the lawn to rot in the winter. However, if you want a lawn (and don't make anyone feel guilty about you for lawns-they are very useful), it won't work. The leaves will pile up and spread on the ground, causing endless exposure and dead spots.

Then there is the debate about whether it is better to rake off all these leaves or simply cover them with a lawn mower.

In this I will issue a company, "it depends"

As far as I am concerned, I switched to a rechargeable lawn mower some time ago. (I like this little machine.) It is lightweight, easy to use, and very cute. My wife said that it looks like a child’s toy lawn mower. When you push the lawn mower across the lawn, a small plastic ball will pop out of a transparent plastic dome. But it works and I am satisfied.

But even if it has enough power to do well on the grass, it is far from enough to cover a layer of healthy brown dry leaves. If the leaf is wet, forget it. I have to blow, sorry, raked all my leaves.

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If your lawn mower does a good job of mulching, and you don’t have a 100-foot oak tree that drops a 12-foot layer of leaves on the lawn every three days, then mulching is a good idea. It circulates the nutrients of the leaves back to the lawn, which is a good thing for the local environment.

If, like me, lawn mower mulching is not your choice, you can choose what to do with the leaves you collect. Bagging is one of the ways that the self-styled neighborhood natural police chief looks at you through his/her glasses and swings the accusing index finger. But like many things in life, things are not that simple.

If you live in a place where many big trees drop too many leaves, and you don't have the space to compost a few cubic miles of debris, you don't have many options. Just pack it in paper bags instead of plastic bags.

If you decide to take the composting route, that would be great. The nature police will give you a special badge to protect the earth. But be sure to think carefully. Composting leaves, if you have a lot of leaves, it takes space, time and energy. If your intentions are long and lack follow-up (I'm looking in the mirror, here) you may need to think more about it.

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Rotating leaf piles 10-12 times in a few months can reduce them to a fraction of the original pile size and produce excellent compost that can be used as a mulch or soil amendment. But if it is not rotated regularly, the leaf piles can easily become spots that swallow the backyard.

Trust me, I have been there. This is definitely not the best time!

Paul Cappiello is the executive director of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, 6220 Old Lagrange Road, yewdellgardens.org.