I had the whole outdoors to myself this afternoon. Everyone else, it seemed, was attending or watching The Game. Sure, it’s fun to watch a football team that seems to make history with every game, but priorities, people, priorities!
Today was a nice day to work outside. I would guess once the sun came out, the temperature might have reached the low 50’s. I can work comfortably in this type of weather with the right clothes. It is true what they say about dressing in layers. T-shirt, thermal shirt and hooded sweatshirt jacket on top. Long underwear, jeans, and thick socks on the bottom. Leather garden gloves for my hands. I didn’t even know it was cold outside.
I started off by mowing the grass. My neighbor from Arizona stopped me to ask if this would be the last time to mow and when should he lower his blade? Well, it won’t be the last time to mow, but we are getting close. And today I did drop the blade about half an inch in anticipation of only mowing a few more times. According to my records, the latest I’ve had to mow the grass is December 1.
I just love mowing the grass in the fall. The leaves make a nice cracking sound as they are chopped up by the mower and the wet, decaying leaves have that rich, earthy scent about them. Plus, the brisk, cool air really is refreshing. I will miss mowing once I’m done for the season. I really will.
Guess what I did after I mowed the grass? If you guessed that I got out the chipper shredder to do some more garden clean up, you’d be right. I chopped up two wheelbarrow’s full of trimmings, primarily from perennials.
I still have more garden clean up I can do, and I’ll keep at it as long as there are days like today when I’m not at work. But I’ve reached the point where if we had a big snow tomorrow or no more good days to work outside, it would not be a disaster.
It feels good to get to this point, yes it does. And speaking of snow, I also got the snow blower started today, so if (when) we do get some snow, I think I’m ready.
Finally, I did not run into any friends of Little Joe, Big Bill, Fred or George. I was happy about that! Who are they? They are the slugs pictured in yesterday’s post. In case you missed my sister’s comment to the post about the slugs, that’s what her kids named the ones they found a few days ago.
Happy Fall Gardening, all!
I remember seeing huge slugs in California. I don’t mind Texas slugs, but those California ones are revolting if you ask me. 🙂
I mow in the winter once in a while even though the grass doesn’t really grow. It keeps the weeds from going to seed.
Mowing the grass is my least favor gardening shore. In the summer is a weekly event that I despise; now we can get away with mowing once a month. It if wasn’t for my dogs I would get rid of it all the grass.
By the way those are nasty looking slugs, down here they are enemy number one
If I remember correctly you live in Indiana. Is that southern or northern. We certainly do not have slugs that big here in Chicago.
Fireflies or Lightning bugs (whichever your childhood name for them) larvae eat slugs, which is one of the many reasons we have gone about creating a positive habitat for them. That and the fact that I love watching the blinkings messages at dusk on warm summer nights…Gloria