Final fall cleanup?

I decided to try something different this year with my leaves. I have three fruit trees along the west side of the backyard and they drop a prodigious amount of leaves. The pile looks so nice and yellow and thick.

The rest of the yard doesn’t get any leaves on it unless there is a good wind. The last few years I have been raking the leaves onto the perennials beds, beds that I had not yet planted anything in waiting for the compost and mulch to breakdown in preparation for planting.

This year, I decided that since those beds have been planted and will get lots of mulch dumped on them after the ground freezes, I will share the wealth of those fruit tree leaves with the entire yard.

I raked all of the leaves over the entire yard and let them sit for a few days. No special reason for leaving them sit, I just didn’t feel like dragging the mower out until today. The weather gave Utah another beautiful, clear, 55F day and I, in my usual capricious manner, decided that today was the day for mowing. I find that as I get older I do things whenever I feel like it more so than when they have to be done. I am more or less within acceptable bounds as far as the proper timetable, but don’t count on me to do anything by a strict schedule, is all I am saying.

Now that the leaves had rested there a few days and it looked like they weren’t going to be blown away by the wind, I thought today would be a perfect day to follow through with my brilliant plan and put those leaves to work. The grass wasn’t really in need of mowing but that wasn’t why my intention. Besides this way I could run the gas out of the mower to get it ready for winter storage. I love it when I can do two or more things at once, thereby saving time. Ah, if only it would work out that way. If I timed it right the gas would run out at the exact moment when the last leaf was mulched. And if the mower just happened to be at the storage shed door when it happened, all the better. That kind of luck doesn’t usually come about easily so I wasn’t really counting on it.

The lawn looks nice now, all cleaned of leaf clutter. Of course, the next frost or gust of wind that comes along will sever the remaining leaves tenuous hold and another pile will be created. That pile I think will go to my pseudo-compost pile. There is still the apple tree, which hasn’t dropped any leaves yet. I guess it’s because it still has quite a few apples on it. But, I am sure that after all of the leaves have fallen and they are all sitting in their final resting place, only then will all of my fall chores finally be done.

Let’s see, I better double check my to do list...

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End of one year, beginning of next

I can't believe it is time to start thinking of cleaning up the yard and garden for Winter in preparation for next Spring. Time flies when you are having fun? As I get older, time flies even if you aren't having fun.

I have to admit that overall, I did enjoy this year. I started four new perennial beds, which means 490 sq ft less yard to mow, yeah!. Two of them were started from scratch, i.e., grass into planted bed, and two from amended bare earth to planted bed. I added 20 new plants to four existing beds that were started last year. This brings the total new plants started this year to 124 and 67 bulbs. Wow! I did not realize I had started that many. I’m shocked and amazed.

Next Spring better look really good!

To satisfy my anal trait, I keep maps of each bed so I know where everything is planted. I also enter all pertinent information into a spreadsheet calendar linking each plant to a word document telling me everything I ever want to know about any given plant I have in my garden. I know, everything is online somewhere, but if I am ever without a connection to the internet, for whatever reason, at least I have what I need on my hard drive. Now I need to print it all out in case the computer breaks down.

The lawn mower needs to be maintained, i.e., gas treatment, wheels oiled, oil changed, air filter cleaned, blade sharpened. Tools need to be cleaned, sharpened and wood handles treated with linseed oil. Containers need to be emptied and cleaned with bleach solution. Weeds to be pulled, always! Perennials need to be divided, since this my first year I can put this chore off. Mulch needs to be added after ground freezes to prevent freeze/thaw cycle. Amendments need to be added and worked into soil. Annuals need to be pulled.

Still a lot left to do.

Well, the leaves are falling and just begging me to rake them onto the compost pile, so, as they say “Nature calls” and “Time waits for no man”.

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