Thursday, October 29, 2009

They Might Be Giants

It's fall.



The giants around the house are tossing off their clothes. In the wild live the tallest trees.



While my trees may not be the most colorful, just beyond the wild, the neighbor's maples are in full swing.



My maple, by the street, is half naked.



Her clothes lay strewn upon the new path along the backside of the perennial bed.



Beside the driveway, another giant lurks at the head of the perennial bed. Around her base, I planted azaleas.



All along the gully and into the wild, the nandina berries are turning bright red.



It's 55 degrees, cool and crisp. There's another heavy dew soaking everything. Water drips from the roof into the downspout outside my bedroom window. Acorns are attacking cars in neighboring yards. The squirrels are almost giddy with anticipation. Another warm day expected with a high of 74. I'll spend the next couple of hours collecting and shredding leaves for mulch.

12:24pm - It's 63 and still sunny. A wonderful day. I spent the morning bagging and shredding leaves from the street and the driveway. I moved some more rocks that were uncovered by the rain to the crape myrtle bed. I need one more wheelbarrow full to finish the edging, then on to the shrub island. I'm running out of rocks. Looks like I need to start digging again.

I also tagged some of the large leaf maples in the wild area. I'll move them this winter to the gully. I'd like to try to create a bit more enclosure and add some fall color to that area. It's filled with privet and trash trees. I may need to kill off the ivy before I can plant anything. We'll tackle that this winter. Me, and my trusty weed whacker.

I also sowed seeds collected from some type of Cornus shrub just over the gully's ditch. It's possibly a Cornus mas. It's got red, translucent berries. The leaves are shaped like a flowering dogwood, but smaller. It reminds me of Mock Orange. I tagged the tree to see what it will do in the spring. I hope I can remember. I've considered moving it, but I want to see if the berries will germinate first.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Simply beautiful -- enjoy the day!

L. D. said...

You do have such nice trees, leaves or no leaves. I like the picture of the falling leaf. We have to stop raining before I can begin to pick up these leaves for mulch.

Alison said...

Great photo of the leaf falling! What a gorgeous blue sky (she says jealously from the rainy PNW....)

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

The falling leaf was one of those happy mistakes. I took a picture of the clear blue sky. When I came back inside, there it was. I take no credit for the timing. The pictures I tried to take of falling leaves all came out blurry. Go figure.

Darla said...

Beautiful photos, are trees still remain clothed. That does indeed look like a Dogwood Tree..