We grind leaves in the fall with an antique shredder/chipper, dangerous machine, but it makes the most beautiful leaf confetti. The confetti stays piled all winter then in the spring I mix roughly two forks of composted horse manure to one fork confetti and put it on the beds. Pathways get whole newspaper or opened paper grocery bags with confetti spread on top. By fall everything in the beds has been worked in by the worms. The pathways are soft to walk on barefoot all summer, only downside is the confetti sticks to damp feet if you are out before the dew dries off
Any weeds are pulled by hand.
