Garden Lessons

With the fall season rapidly showing off it's coat of colors, I have noticed that this year is an exceptional one for Atlanta. Maybe it's nostalgia, and maybe it's just because we had a fair amount of rain, but not too much as to wash away all that Mother Nature had in store for us.

Being a nature lover and a gardener, I have always collected leaves.... and even framed a few I thought were worthy of saving. This practice also has been reserved for flower petals. Into my favorite books went wax paper lined flower petals, or autumn leaves. Then there are the funny looking pine cones that have been gathered to make baskits of table decorations. With all that there is to pick from outside, the supply is never waning.

While working in my yard yesterday, I noticed that the trees have mysteriously changed from their green colors of the day before, and are now in the midst of morphing into reds and oranges. Looking at them through a sunny day, their sight is one of absolute wonder and awe. I always get this same feeling in the spring.... waiting for the trees to bud and eventually burst into flowers that color my yard beautiful.

Living in the south, has been a lesson in tree and lawn management. I wanted to pepper my yard with everything I could in order to make it a showplace of color and harmony. Well, that takes work, and a lot of it. There are millions of books on the market, as well as guides from local nurseries on how to build that special look, but I had ideas of my own. Starting with what I had inherited from the previous owner of my house, I embellished with many new species that were conducive to my region. It was also a lesson in the sense that I had to relearn the names of trees, because some are only grown in the south, and things like lilac bushes did not exist....
But, ok.... we have crepe myrtles and wisteria vines, and they pass off similar traits if not the smells that lilacs emit. Then there are the mighty magnolias, of which I have two kinds that never disappoint, as well as many azaleas, hydrangeas, a dogwood and the sugar maples that were put in the year they built the subdivision. I've added a cherry tree, gardenia bush and cypress that have grown to such heights that it became necessary to prune them this year. They all have now come to the end of their season, spewing leaves that need to be picked through for their brilliance to save, and raking the rest to into the compost pile.

My yard is small, my house smaller, and so I've learned to keep it all at bay as much as possible. I have enough to go around the house and frame it to my perfection, but still have a weakness when I walk into my local nursery.... I want to bring everything home and squeeze it into any open space that I can find. This can be a problem sometimes, because I am a "saver" of discounted flowers and trees. I want to bring them all home, and give them that chance to last longer than the whittled look they appear to have. I should have learned long ago that a pair of blinders should be the necessary equipment for me to wear when approaching said nurseries.
But they are like sirens singing and cajoling me to take a closer look, my strong reserve breaks down, and I become putty in the hands of nature.

Then there is my neighbor, who is a lovely person. She is always saving me bits from her yard, to replant into my yard, never mind the seeds that birds drop and start on their own. She has a terrific view of my back yard from her porch, and has commented that I have made it into a place of art. What a nice thing to say.... after all, that was the look I was going for. I had a great start though, because I have a small bridge that goes across a culvert of ivy separating one part of my back yard from the other.... of which the previous owner had put in. The rest was up to me and my imagination. The tall foliage that grows back there needed to be trimmed, gardens bricked in and ivy cut back. Then to invoke some color, I added birdhouses.... and many of them. After all, the squirrels had their nests high up, but what about the birds that had nowhere to stay when they visited. I didn't disappoint... to this day there must be something like thirty houses out there, with several baths and feeders... a regular day spa for any traveler coming through. Of course my neighbors kitty loves my yard even more than I do, and uses it as her personal hunting grounds. I'm ok with that as she has rid my yard of many snakes and rats that harbor in the ivy.... I get removal and disposal, as she brings them home to her masters, and there are never too many dead bodies to pick up (unless they go on vacation, but that's another story).

So now is the time to place my gardens into the hands of Mother Nature again and let them lie fallow for the fall and winter season. The mums are coming up as scheduled for this time of year, and it's almost time to plant the pansies that will last through the winter and into early spring. Yes, my yard will never know the meaning of bland, something will always be blooming somewhere, while other areas are getting ready for their season in due time. Ah, the wonderment of bulbs and their ability to shoot up when they know the time is right. Now, if only my grass would behave!