Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Autumnal feelings

'Tis the time once again where everything must die or go dormant. The bursts of color are in some ways pleasing and others, sad. The bright colors signal the end of the growing season and are a joy to witness. On the other hand, for those of us that enjoy working in the yard, growing things from seed, bringing things to life, it is rather sad. Three to four months of cold hard weather are ahead, here in Virginia we don't really get the hardest of the winter weather until February, which in its self, is good I guess, meaning that we only have 1.5 months of truly cold, harsh weather.

Walking around the yard yesterday, I was able to snap these pics, and some are from last year. The colors are more vibrant when the sun is shining and coming through the golden or orange leaves. The Ginko has yet to color its usual solid yellow color. The trees downtown have already dropped near my sons apartment. I guess ours will burst forth in a few days, giving us the fleeting glimpse of bright yellow leaves, leaving almost as fast as they appear.

The seasonal work has yet to be performed, clipping all of the growth that will soon be dead on the Gladiolas and the Ginger Lilies, adding some mulch over some of the tuberous rooted plants so, if we have bitter cold weather, the plants will survive for next year. I don't rake. I blow the leaves out of the bushes and from around the house and mulch all of it with the lawn mower. It saves on the amount of fertilizer I use and the lawn loves it. No bags of leaves to the landfill where they will probably last for 100 years.

There are still a few plants to be planted, namely three Japanese Maples purchased over the summer. It got too hot and dry to plant them after we got them, so I left them in their pots and kept them in a semi-shady place and watered them well. They have great color and should do just fine come spring.







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