In The Garden

Tom and I have spent most of the last three days working in the garden, taking advantage of dry weather to make that final push to get the fall clean up done. This is dirty, heavy work, clipping and weeding and editing, much of it spent crawling on hands and knees on the cold wet ground. My cranky back and arthritic hands do not approve, but my spirit does. And the results are so satisfying. This morning I took time to notice some of the little wonders around me. They make better photo subjects than the gritty, down and dirty stuff. I noticed the color of the Korean dogwood reflected in the bird bath. The wisteria and magnolia created a golden bower. Purple beauty berry against golden magnolia.

After all the dirty work, the last thing I did was rake up leaves. All those pretty red maple leaves are falling. I hate to see them go.

A stone marking the entrance to the Secret Garden.

As I finished up this rose stuck it's head out and nodded at me.

The leaves are raked off the grass and into the planting beds. Those red leaves do make a colorful mulch. The leaves will protect the soil from the pounding winter rains, decay to feed the soil, and be worked by worms which will aerate it.

All neat and tidy again, and time to sit and take a breather.

There will be more to do. Leaves will have to be raked again, and the lawn mowed at least one more time.

Some beds don't have home grown leaves with which to be mulched, like this rose bed.

For that purpose a load of leaves was delivered yesterday. Tom contacts a yard service company, which is more than happy to dump a load free in our driveway.

So, yes, there is more work to do, but the big jobs are done. Tomorrow the rain returns. The clouds are moving in now after a beautiful sunny day.

We'll be off to Whidbey Island for a couple of days to rest up.