Sorry for the lack of posts recently but I’ve been away on various short trips – Gloucestershire and Bristol, Spain and Berlin. They have all been jolly and I’ve particularly enjoyed the buzz of large towns and cities – and dressing accordingly. So a return to solitary gardening; to shabby clothes, muddy knees and damp socks; dirty nails, frozen fingers and back ache has been rather a bump. And suddenly the seasonal change is obvious, isn’t it? Now the ground is sodden (or crisp with frost) and the days cold, gloomy and dank – a bit like my mood. But occasionally the sun has brought a smile to my gardening grumpy-dom.
The tulip tree, which featured so handsomely in my last post, has now kindly dumped its leaves for me to pick up. Thanks for that, tulip tree.
I’ve been quietly wheeling my barrow about and raking.
Wheeling about and then raking some more. But that’s OK – I need the leaves; annual leaf-mould production is underway.
I’ve built a temporary leaf container next to the compost bins – as I do every year. I’ll need to jump up and down on it – cackling – to cram in all the garden’s leaves. After a couple of months or so, when it has all reduced in bulk, I’ll transfer it to one of the wooden bins and leave for a couple of years. (I decided last year to switch to a two-year leaf mold cycle – twelve months provides a fine result but still has wodges of unbroken-down material).
If the ground weren’t so soggy, I needn’t rake. I could ride about in ever decreasing circles, gathering up the leaf-fall with the ride-on mower. But it is, so I can’t.
Frost has burnished the beech hedge
though the leaves of the weeping willow won’t be rushed. (Excuse two very similar photos but I liked the dissipating vapour trails and tiny, day-time moon).
The oak leaves cling on as well – they have barely started dropping.
Hornbeams (between the two oaks) always drop early
The oaks are usually the last trees in the garden to shed
and as there are so many oaks, there will be plenty more leaves for me to rake and pick-up. Yep, I’ll be raking, leaf-blowing and mowing up leaves for quite some time yet. And on sunny days at least, I don’t mind in the slightest.
