Big Trees

Big trees are nice, most of the year.

In the autumn, not so much.

We spent a couple of half days raking leaves in the yard and here's what it looked like when we were done...

We have a leaf vacuum/shredder that's works pretty well.  I'm not sure that it speeds up the process that much, except that we have fewer trips to the compost pile.  Because it shreds the leaves, we end up with fewer bags.  For some reason it doesn't work as well with oak leaves - it's probably a 2:1 ratio rather than a 4-5:1 ratio with the other types of leaves.

So far we've already hauled 17 45-gallon bags to the county compost pile.  You can see that there are still quite a few leaves on some of the trees.  The maple by the birdbath still has half its leaves.

We'll be doing this at least once (probably twice) more this fall.

While I wait, I took a few moments to wander around the yard and smell the roses.

So to speak.

This one is in the front garden.

These shrubs run along the front sidewalk (they are the shrubs at the far end of the yard in the first photo).

These tree hydrangeas have a very interesting bloom color this time of year.  There is one on either side of the front porch.

Along with the obligatory upright sedum near the driveway.

So while the summer's riot of bloom color is gone, there are still plenty of things going on in the landscape.