Large nursery pots can serve as mini-greenhouses should temperatures dive. Set them over plants in bloom. Rake and collect fallen leaves and use as mulch or in the compost pile. Dry leaves are a good source of carbon and can be mixed in compost bins or piles in alternating layers with green grass or other plant material and manure. Rake them into small piles and run the lawn mower over them several times before adding them to the compost.
Smaller pieces break down more quickly.
You also can bag raked leaves, set them aside, then add as needed to the compost. Or till the leaves into the garden soil. Plant bulb onion sets the first half of this month. Sow sugar snap peas the second half. Do successive plantings of lettuce this month and through winter.