Foliage Colors

Here are photos to go with the verbal description from the previous post.

Blueberries

Dogwood

Small evergreen groundcover: Ginger

Shadbush or Serviceberry: Amelanchier

Hickories. I am told this is "school bus yellow"

This shows the hickories in context i.e. with oaks

White Oak

Oak leaf Hydrangea

Mapleleaf Viburnum

More mapleleaf viburnum - note the berries. Truly an outstanding plant for looks and wildlife value both.

Falling Colors

Out the front door colors may be at their peak, but a storm came through last night and many more leaves are down than before.

The ash is completely bare. It had some nice orange before it was down. The scrub oak is green tinged with brown- the dead leaves will be there through March. Next to it, the native hickory (must nail down species) is yellow, while in front of it the shagbark hickory is more greenish yellow. Greener still is the Carolina silverbell. Back towards the street the arrowroot viburnum is mostly still green, and the large red oak is solidly green. The redbud is a nice yellow with a huge number of dark brown seed pods. The white oak is green, orange and brown- all leaves still on. The beleaguered pagoda dogwood has lost most of its leaves.

On the other side of the front walk, the dogwood is dark red, the serviceberry is orange, and the oakleaf hydrangea is rainbowing from green to orange to purple to brown.

GTG

- iPhone uPdate

Cutting the Grass

For the first time in months I cut the grass. I raked it up into a giant mound, onto a tarp, and dragged it next to the compost heap. I laboriously dug it into the uncomposted part of the heap, but still ended up with a big heap on top. In a couple of weeks there should be brown leaves to pile on top of that so it should cook over the winter.


- iPhone uPdate

Are Buckets of Rain Better Than None?

)The rain has been erratic this year.  Mostly it has felt like a drought, but the data says that cumulatively, we've had as much precipitation this year as last.  But its come down in monsoons, tropical storm aftermaths, not the steady accumulation that lets it soak in.  The lastest data:

We missed the critical big rains in May and June, caught up with a deluge in August, then had essentially no rain for five weeks again until Nicole came through in September (incidentally ending up in my basement).

I assume some rain, and cumulative totals adding up, is better than no rain at all. I hope upcountry, rain from deluges is being trapped in forests and ponds and not all rolling down into the rivers at once. Around here, the trend is to rain gardens, and try to retard the rush of water rather than speed it on its way. I've certainly done my part in my yard (not counting the basement, which mostly ends up back into the drains) though there is more to be done.

I can imagine a line from a depression-era agriculture-based novel, "The rains came late this year, and came in devastating downpours when they came." I am told upstate Maryland has declared an agricultural disaster area and is providing assistance to the farmers. Is this a sign of the increasing volatility in weather we can expect from here on out as the climate continues to change?

Blooming Now: It's Fall!

We had the tail end of a tropical storm this week - over five inches total I hear - and a lot of it ended up in my basement. But a lot helped out the plants as well.

It's clearly autumn, and the colors of autumn are everywhere, including my yard. I've got mums and goldenrod and asters and ageratum, along with the weeds everywhere. I spent a good three hours in the front yard, cleaning up branches from my self-pruning silver maple and my ancient white oak. I tossed the wood into a pile at the edge of my yard, where it drops off to the neighbor's. I figure it will eventually decompose to make a berm (I'll pile leaves on it later) and in the mean time, it keeps the mailman and even the deer from using that pathway.

I'm mostly still coasting on things done in years past.

Mums Oct 2010

I bought these mums at Loews for about $2 each a couple of years ago. I actually bought 5 each of four colors, but these are what have survived. This year, I recognized them coming up and pinched them off several times before the 4th of July, as you are supposed to do. Hooray for previous investments paying off!