fallen leaves

Opening Day



It was opening day yesterday, as all the neighborhood stopped to chat while I was out cleaning the garden. I even got to crane my neck chatting it up, old style, with my neighbor upstairs (ack, apparently the window affair will be starting up again).  It was time to open up the garden to air and light, removing leaves and litter, and open up some new possibilities.

I raked leaves that never had a winter's chance to blow into corner catches, matted under the all-winter snow, creating a comfy, never did freeze environment for over-wintering perennials. I hesitated for just a second, thinking there's well enough time for a long, hard freeze for these newly exposed leaves. But then I wanted to rake, to clean, and did a cursory job, leaving some for later. I also pruned out all the lower branches of the climbing hydrangea, in hopes that they will not catch trash and to minimize the privacy so many neighborhood cats find under there.

I could have photographed all the bulbs coming up, but after three years blogging, who needs more of that? I was impressed with the greenery of the Aconitum, or Monkshood, that was just a few days ago covered in a pile of snow.

You may or may not remember that I had some late, late irises in December. While cleaning the iris bed out, I found some stalks that had budded, but ceased to grow, remaining under snow for most of winter. This one I had cut and peeled open, revealing no sign of rot. In fact, the bud seemed perfectly healthy and ready to shoot up this spring. Unbelievable. I left another intact, just to see what happens.

I've started some snap peas in bond paper tubes and every quick glance makes me think I'm seeing chocolate cake.


Spring Cleaning

The warmish weather this weekend got me fired up for cleaning out the garden. I usually leave all the dead perennial branches over the winter, then wait for the first signs of life, usually crocus, to go out and cut them down. In that time, many of the blowing leaves get caught up at the crowns of the shrubs and perennials. Although many argue the points of cleaning up before winter or after, I choose to leave these and have had little problems for it.

Because we can have a late winter cold blast, I take my chances clearing out the leafy protection the new shoots enjoy. That said, those young shoots are pretty hardy and the chances of a prolonged deep freeze are unlikely. My plot here benefits from strong all day sun (equal to October 10th or so), a protective wall to the north and a warmed sidewalk to the south. All the more amazing that my crocus are just up now, where usually they come up somewhere in February.

The only real danger comes in cleaning out too late. I am always eager to get out there as soon as it warms enough to see green shoots popping through the leaves, but life gets in the way sometimes and I get out there later than I would like. If the bulb greens and new leaves of perennials are putting on lots of new growth, I may damage them with my rake (or my hand) as I clear the leaves. I can only avoid this by getting in to clean as soon as possible.

The hardy Aconitum -last to go in fall and first up in spring.


Surprised to see these daylilies coming on strong

I cleaned out two full size trash bags, which is hard to believe. Twigs, stems, leaves and lots of trash. All in all, it was a good 3 hours of work. I left the rose pruning to "some other time." I also got to chat with some neighbors, all of whom I haven't seen since I was last in the garden.



Leaves Adrift



As I ran out the door this morning to pick up the laundry I was reminded of dreaded winter winds.

On my way back I enjoyed the swales of maple and sycamore (plane) tree leaves drifting over the sidewalk.


I thought of the unison of winds and plants -wind pushing and plant stems collecting leaves.


Crazy Hard Early Freeze

I haven't seen it this cold this soon since 2002. I didn't have a garden that year, but I remember the cold on Thanksgiving morning as I went off to the parade with my then girlfriend and now wife. It was cold then, but this cold comes with a stinging wind. Brrr.

As we walked through Prospect Park this morning to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey from the farmer market, I couldn't help but to notice all the south facing slopes that had full grown canopy and understory trees with totally green leaves on them. Now, I don't mean the evergreens, but maples and the like, deciduous trees that seemed to not even have the chance to change color before the freeze. Those leaves look flash-frozen, perfectly green.

So it was disjunctive to feel the brisk wind on my face and see masses of perfectly green leaves attached to groupings of trees. Its particularly noticeable on the west side, near the cemetery as you descend the moraine's slope and also between the massive, green brick Parks' garage and the drive. Unusual, or at least I cannot recollect this scene from past years.

Two Minutes for Tulips

Well, I did it. Today was balmy by recent days' comparison. We cleaned the house some and still I had twenty minutes before I had to leave for work. That bag of tulips was bothering me and I know they would have gotten moldy and rotted had I left them to next year. So I went out on this cloudy, breeze-less day and planted those tulips. Ground soft as ever, not a lick of freeze in it, and I only chopped a few previously planted bulbs in the effort. So I call it a good gardening day and probably the last of the cold season. But there is one other nagging question, "should I remove those leaves now or later?"...

Some say remove fallen leaves to retard the development of disease in the garden. Some say let the fallen leaves stay to act as winter mulch. Those leaves can protect young shoots coming up during early spring freeze/thaw cycles. Yet the leaves can also retard the growth of some young plants. So which is it?

Well, it is true that I have little need for winter mulch in my garden as the ground hardly freezes. Those leaves will be harder to remove in spring as they will be wet and entangled deep in the plants. I haven't had any serious problem with disease in the garden, so that really doesn't factor in. Okay, I think I found another task to take on before Christmas. Maybe.