I love gardens in the fall. They are so humble and honest. There's no showing off, no urgency. You can take your time in a fall garden.
One of the things that I like about living here is that I can garden all year. Late fall and early, early spring are my favorite times of year to garden. It's cool and overcast, and the ground is soft and workable. I don't have to worry about sunburns or spider bites, and I don't have to contend with poison sumac or red bandit bees (yikes!).
Our big tulip tree loses blankets and blankets of leaves every fall and after the big wind storm we had last week, all of its leaves were officially lost. When I raked them all up this weekend (three huge yard cans and five lawn bags full), it felt good to unearth everything and see how the plants were doing.
I trim everything but the roses and the ornamental grasses back in the fall. Some things get trimmed down to the ground — some things just get a little trim, like the spireas and the azaleas.
I'm trying to grow moss to cover this whole section between the dry creek/path and the main garden bed. Slowly by surely it's making its way. Last year each of these little puffs was only a couple of inches across. I'm hoping that as the weeping cherry tree grows, it will provide the garden with just a touch more shade. I think the moss will be even happier then.
I worked outside until I couldn't lift my shovel anymore. I love that feeling. My legs and shoulders are still sore, three days later.
