Summer Collapsed

I notice as I walk around the neighborhood these days that some trees are already shedding their leaves—river birches and ash trees primarily. (Yes, there are a few ash trees still growing in my neighborhood, protected from the Emerald Ash Borers by their owners’ judicious use of systemic insecticide treatments.)

Is there anything better than shuffling through fallen leaves? I love the sound of them crunching under my shoes.

The pine trees in the common area are shedding old needles that litter the sidewalk.

In my own garden, the honeylocust tree is shedding its leaves. It is always the first tree to give up its leaves in my yard, and I always bring a few inside with me every time I go out and come back in the backdoor, which is multiple times a day. I should invent an indoor rake to clean them up.

This year many of the honeylocust leaves are falling as a clump bound together by the webbing of mimosa webworms. (That’s a story for another post.)  

Some trees, like the smokebush, Cotinus coggygria, pictured here, aren’t in total agreement on whether or not to accept the inevitable arrival of fall so just one or two branches of leaves are changing colors. 

I’m sure the rest will follow soon.

There are rumors of the possibility of a light frost this weekend. How can that be? But the calendar in a few hours will say “October” and our average first frost date is around October 10th, so I guess it can be.

The local greenhouse, usually open until Halloween, is now considering closing up later this week because they are nearly out of mums, the main flower they sell in the fall. Their supplier has no more to sell them either.  It’s been a busy year for them so I’m sure they are happy to have the extra time this fall to prepare for a quick start in January, when they start growing some of what they’ll begin to sell in March.

Oh, and my bulb order arrived yesterday. Just 500 bulbs, so far, and they are all Chionodoxa. I’m going to plant them in the back lawn later in October. They should bloom in late March and early April, just in time for Easter on April 6th.

Summer may have collapsed into fall, but the garden, and I, go on!

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Speaking of going on, Dee and I have started on our second 100 episodes of The Gardenangelists podcast. This week we talk about learning from rich people’s gardens. 

“What Lucy and Ethel and Laverne and Shirley brought to sitcoms, Carol and Dee bring to the world of podcasts with their informative, often humorous take on gardening. Listen every week to The Gardenangelists to find out what Carol and Dee are up to in their own gardens as they discuss flowers, veggies, and all the best dirt.”

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Keep Gardening!

And thank you for reading my blog posts. May I never take you for granted.

L      S      L

L    S    L

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(That’s supposed to be a flower for you, dear reader. I’m not very good at typing pictures. P=petal, S=Stem, L=Leaves)