Leaf-peeper’s Delight

The last week has been a leaf-peeper’s delight here at Meadow Glenn and throughout the Mid-Atlantic states as red maple trees—Acer rubrum—have displayed unusually brilliant fall colors.  A month ago I would have argued the lack of rain would mean dull fall leaves, but then the rains came and the leaves of the red maples turned into colors that stun the eye.

I’ve planted at least a dozen red maples at Meadow Glenn over the last 15 years or so, and many now are of a size to be noticeable when their summer green turns to fall red, orange, and gold.  Here are some photos that I took over the weekend.  I’ll save for last a photo of the tree we love the most—an ancient red maple now in the decline of age—aren’t we all?—that Ellen and I see every morning in the golden light of the rising sun as we gaze out our kitchen window.

Our Ancient Red Maple at sunrise

Frosty-morning beauty

Strawberry leaf

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “frost”?

An ancient wrote:  “By the breath of God frost is given” – Job 37:10 (KJV).

A modern definition: “Frost: Ice crystals formed on grass or other objects by the sublimation (direct transfer) of water vapor from the air at below-freezing temperatures” – National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather.

When I looked out our kitchen window this morning  and saw a frosty landscape, my first thought wasn’t “breath of God” or “sublimation of water vapor” but “where’s my camera so I can take some photographs before the sun melts the ice crystals.”

Here are several frosty designs I captured this morning:

Amish Cockscomb blossom

Kamtschaticum sedum

Ruby Red chard

Grass (fescue)

Composting: Critters in the Pile?

Critters in the pile?
Photo by Kent Phillips

Cities and counties sometimes outlawed backyard composting because it might attract unsavory critters. Today’s composting articles don’t often focus on such potential problems but tell composters to take care about what they add to their piles.

Who else would take focus on the unfocusable than Barbara Damrosch in her “A Cook’s Garden” column in today’s Washington Post.

Clearly Post editors enjoyed writing the headlines. Headline of the print-edition column: “Smelling a rat in the compost.” Of the online search result: “Oh rot, critters in the compost.” Of the online column: “Vanishing vermin in the compost pile.”

Don’t let the Post editors have all the fun. To enjoy Damrosch’s column, CLICK HERE.

What Causes Leaf Shadows?

You’re enjoying a walk on an autumn day after a rain.  You notice the prints of maple leaves on the concrete sidewalk or on the asphalt roadway where leaves soaked by the rain have dried and blown away.

You’re puzzled.  How does that happen?

You’ll know the answer in about one minute if you read Patterson Clark’s “Urban Jungle” column, “Leaf Shadows,” from the Washington Post.  CLICK HERE to read.

Mulch-Mowing Leaves: How to Do It

You’ve cleaned up the house after your family Thanksgiving feast.  You’ve napped through Black Friday, when the clouds and sprinkles gave way to sunshine and colder weather.  The forecast says rain tomorrow.  It’s time to get serious about the job you’ve been putting off for weeks—disposing of those autumn leaves covering your yard.

In his “Garden” column in the Washington Post, Adrian Higgins details how the “garden honchos” at Winterthur, the duPont estate in Delaware, use mulching mowers to recycle leaves right into gardens and lawns, rather than raking or blowing and bagging.

Higgins even explains how the honchos take care of the leaves that fall in the shrubs and on hard surfaces, such as sidewalks—details often lacking in such articles.

To read Higgins’s article, CLICK HERE.

Leaves of Autumn--No More Bagging

Leaves are falling from your maple and oak trees by the tens of thousands. You’ve got to get out there with your rake and 10, 20, 40, or 80 recyclable leaf bags. Your muscles soon will cramp. Your back will ache. God bless suburbia! Happy Autumn!

Whoaaaaaaa!

There’s a better, easier, way to take care of your leaves. In her “A Cook’s Garden” column in the Washington Post, Barbara Damrosch, recommends several ways you can use them in your flower and veggie gardens and even on your lawn.

I love her first sentence: “It’s November, and nature is mulching.”

To read her short article, CLICK HERE.