Autumn photos (3)

[Freedom]

Someone asked me to share photos of Autumn. You know, pumpkins, hay bales, mums. HA!

This is Autumn in MY yard!
Front
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/sfsamm/2009/Oct%2031%20dogs%20at%20hallwn/IMG_2646Small.jpg

Back Yard
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/sfsamm/2009/Oct%2031%20dogs%20at%20hallwn/IMG_2647Small.jpg

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/sfsamm/2009/Oct%2031%20dogs%20at%20hallwn/IMG_2648Small.jpg

Years ago, folks raked leaves and burned them. Later, cities and towns required that you buy a permit, maximum 3 per year, for burning brush. Now, that is prohibited almost every where. Folks rake the leaves, fill PAPER sacks and the trash depts. have special collections for yard waste. Most of it goes into a compost pile.

I don't rake. I use the lawn mower to mulch and pick up the leaves. They all get dumped on my vegetable garden. Then they get tilled into the soil. GREAT fertilizer!

Normally, from the time I sit to put on my grubby old sneakers, go out and mow, return to the garage and remove those sneakers, is about 35 minutes. Today, it took me over an hour and a half! Those leaves fill the mower bag quickly! My back was getting sore, bending to disconnect and reconnect the bag. But the leaves are now in the garden -- at least, the leaves from both sugar maple trees. The silver maple has a 2 week delay, so I get to do this again shortly!

Not what you asked for, my friend, but all I have on offer at the moment! :p

[Daisy and Delilah]

Thanks, Sandie!! It makes me feel like I'm temporarily in New England. We don't have all those gorgeous trees down here. I do have some maples, sycamores, and a few other "northern" trees. We can't burn them either. We have to bag them and put them at the road for pickup. When I was doing the mowing, I also mulched them with the lawn mower. Thank goodness, I have someone that comes once a week and does it for me now.

Do you bag your's, let them sit until they mold and use them or put them on the garden right away? I used to use leaf mold on all my plants but not anymore. I have seen people stop and load the leaf bags in their trucks from what I leave at the road. Leaf mold is an excellent mulch. Especially for our azaleas.

[Casper]

Wow, the tree in the first picture has a really pretty color to it. I imagine it looked even more beautiful before the leaves fell. :)


I enjoy raking leaves; I think I will start in on that this week!

[Freedom]

Do you bag your's, let them sit until they mold and use them or put them on the garden right away?

Terry, I have a compost pile in the far back corner of the veggie garden. All summer, the grass clippings go there, and any food stuffs, especially from the garden. (Radish leaves, lettuce roots, tomato vines, etc.) Mostly the pile just sits there all season, sometimes I flip it around a bit. Next Spring I spread it around and till it all in to the soil. Dad used a pitch fork, I use a gas powered rototiller.

[Kirsten]

Looks very much like our trees here, indeed very autumn-like! :)

However, looks like a lot of work in your yard! :D

Kirsten