Hi! We just planted 3 sweet bay magnolias in a strip of grass along one side of our fence. A landscaping guy just told us that we should connect the 3 sweet bays with one big mulched flower bed b/c the leaves don't decompose well and we don't want to mow over them and dull the mower blade and it would be added work to rake them up year round. But, the sweet bay's leaves are thin and flexible. Does that change when they mature? Maybe this guy is confused and thinking that our trees are actually the traditional southern magnolia? That's what you mostly see around here.

We want to just mulch around around the individual trees and leave the rest of the grass. What would you do? Thanks for your input. These trees are new to us!