Well, At least I know I'm in good company.
My east neighbor has a Eucalyptus that overhangs the fence. (Basically, ALL of his leaves end up in my yard, hence, my pool.)
My south neighbor has fir trees, one of which has beetle blight and is basically dead, but he refuses to cut them down.
My West neighbor has palms, which, "share" their miserableness with everyone in the neighborhood. I filled a 5 gallon bucket with palm seeds the other day just from my car port on that side of the house.
My yard? No trees. But I get everyone elses mess.
Funny though - I actually thought the same as ewKearns - I can see the headline now but I'm not sure how far I would get with a plug-in chainsaw. That might be a short chase for the PD
On top of that, between me and my south neighbor is an alley - that's dirt / stone, not paved. So, everytime the garbage truck, or some other random car drives down (usualy the junkers looking for stuff on sundays) I get a huge dust cloud that goes up, over the fence, and in the pool. All these little things you don't notice when your looking at the house before you move in!
The eucalytpus is the worst since it has itty bitty little leaves that blow all over the place.
The pine needles are second - but I have a rock ring around the outside of the pool patio, so I take a propane weed torch and burn those up once a month.
AS for the OP - I 2nd the recommendation for river rock, or even the red rock you can usually get at lowes or HD. But also, agree that you should put a weed barrier down just in case.
I have found for mulch, I just spend a couple extra bucks and buy the rubber stuff. It floats! I just scrape it out of the skimmer and plop it back in the garden