Backyard View - November 2014

I’m continuing my monthly post of morning images of the trees in our backyard that I started in September and continued in October. Since all the leaves have fallen of this month, I’ll take a hiatus until next spring and then do another series in the spring.

The November trees were colorful…and then bare by the end of the month. At the beginning of the month, the tulip poplar (middle) leaves were mostly on the ground, the maple (right) still had a lot of red leaves and the small locust next to the pine was turning yellow. The images in the slide show below were taken on the

2nd, (still some green in the maple)

3rd, (no more green in the maple and there are more leaves on the ground)

4th, (there was some raking done for the thickest area of leaves)

8th, (the locust has turned completely yellow and it is obvious there will need to be more raking)

11th, (the neighbor’s yard crew did now work, the maple is has dropped a lot of leaves but the locust still has quite a few)

13th and (not leaves on the maple, the locust has lost most of its leaves as well)

20th. (the neighbor’s yard crew blew off the leaves and left bare dirt).

Since the last picture - I raked again. I leave the leaf mulch in areas that are too heavily shaded to grow grass!

Backyard View - October 2014

I’m continuing the monthly post of morning images of the trees in our backyard that I started in September. There has been quite a lot of change in October but there are still quite a lot of leaves remaining. There was added drama this month because of a broken branch high in the tulip poplar that had remained awkwardly suspended rather than falling to the ground. About mid-October (image 3 in the slide show below) - it fell. I was surprised that I didn’t hear it fall.

The tulip poplar turns yellow and drops most of its leaves before the maple completes its color change. I’ve done a quick raking on some of the thickest parts of the leaf drop (and pine needles too) because I want the grass to survive. I’ve started taking the leaves into the forest rather than bagging them for pickup at the curb. I used the big branch that fell to make a corral to keep the pile from blowing back into the yard! There will be a few more rakings before the yard slides into its winter mode.