A change or two for Thanksgiving ‘22

Today my front yard looks like an autumn landscape …. not on a postcard but on a sale paper for leaf blowers and rakes. I prefer to think of it as an advertisement for autumn, my favorite season. Yellow leaves still cling to the silver maple, but the red maple’s leaves are mostly on the ground. The already brown dogwood leaves are strewn about the yard. The ornamental pears are about half red and half green at this point, but I parked under one of them yesterday and returned this morning to find my car covered with bright leaves. Mostly though, big sycamore leaves coat the yard. Almost every brown leaf is bigger than my hand, and the wind has worked diligently to spread them all over the whole place.

All over town I’ve seen people raking their leaves, but you won’t see me with a rake in my hand. I like those leaves. I like the way they look, and they also provide a blanket for some of my more delicate plants. Besides, when Jack Frost brings the winter winds to push Fall out of his way, those winds will carry away most of the leaves. The ones that remain to rot will enrich the soil for next year’s gardens. If by some rare chance the leaves are still here in the spring, then I’ll get them with the lawn mower. You can bet I’ll not be raking them.