Fall Cleanup...So Easy and a Wedding Promise

Last evening we were listening to the weather forecast...Wed. was to be our last good day as far as the weather goes. Oh, dear, what should I do? The young man, who was to come and help, had forgotten me and my yard was needing some attention. At 5...I got my getup on and grabbed my gloves, clippers, pruners, chair, lawn cart and headed out to get the job done. As I moved around the house, I took my chair and sat, while I cut things down. Waiting till later in the fall had made the hostas soft and squishy. All I had to do was pull them ...so easy. This job was a piece of cake. I left the Autumn Joy Sedums for winter interest. Now let me tell you about my experience with winter interest...it always looks like some weeds that I have forgotten to cut down. Maybe this year will be different. They are really striking right now. Beautiful color...burgundy flowers and bright green stems. Moving on, I come to the place under the bird feeder. Where there is seed drop...grasses are growing. Leaving them this long...they are long and tall....so easy to pull up. Moving on around the house the Stella's are next. They are brown and withered. Such an easy task. Don't tell Joe! A little rodent scampered out of the Stella's and under the air conditioner. He was black with beady eyes. He looked at me...I looked at him and he ran for his hole. "OK, little one...you can stay here for the winter...just don't come in the house." I reached the Lilys of the Valley. Waiting until now...the leaves were flat on the ground and a brownish mass. I decided to leave them...they will disintegrate under the snow and the new ones will come up and be so thick that they will not be noticed. This job, that I had been dreading, took me an hour and a half. Next year, I won't be so anxious to go out and do my fall cleanup. If I let nature take it's course...the job will be easier, because the plants disintegrate and are easier to get rid of. I was finished with my job and it was still warm and light out. Joe came out...just in time to wheel the cart back to the woods to dump. We sat on the bench and looked at the woods. He said that he would use the weed whacker back there for me. We can do it together and get the job done. As we walked back up to the house, we noticed all the leaves on the ground under the trees. The trees have grown in the years that we have been married and now the ground is covered under the trees. I lived in a house with huge trees before marrying Joe. Every year, I was knee deep in leaves. I wrote about this before on this blog. Before we married, one of his wedding promises was that I would never have to rake leaves again I'm holding him to it :)

Balisha