Around our (Maryland) Yard in October 2013

Our Maryland fall has been muted this year. Most of the trees have not achieved the brilliant colors of years past; the few that do are flashes of brilliance that provide a splash of color for a few day and then drop all their leaves to the ground. I find myself appreciating the play of light through oak leaves this year and the splotches of color on maple leaves that fill a tree that looks ‘green’ from a distance.

The front flower bed is mostly gone to seed. I haven’t seen the birds easting the seeds of the blazing stars but the bare rib of some of the seed plums is evidence that the feast is not going totally unnoticed. We’ve had freezing temperatures for the past few mornings but there is still a dahlia blooming - resting on the sidewalk that probably retains enough heat to keep it warm.

The tulip poplars are losing their leaves and their seeds without becoming the blaze of yellow. They tower over our yard and their leaves wave in the wind….and whirl away.

Last but not least - the onion seeds are scattering as the wind shakes them like at rattle out of their cases. I hope some of them come up next spring as new plants.

Leaves in August 2013

We have four types of trees growing in our yard that are abundant in our region: sycamore, tulip poplar, oak and maple.

The leaves are looking a little battered at this point in the season. The sycamore has tiny holes in its leaves.

The tulip polar has round marks where the leaf has died. It looked like they were higher density on the branches closer to the ground. 

The oak has some places where the green chlorophyll is already beginning to die…the harbinger of fall.

The maple leaves look the best this year. A few years ago that tree was the one with the round dead spots. The tree is recovered from a heavy load of grapevine that was cut a few years ago at the ground. The vine died but it held onto the tree and is only now beginning to break into pieces and fall to the ground.

In a few months the maple leaves will be red; the tulip poplar’s leaves will be yellow. The oak will look deep red when the sun is shining through them but look brown on closer inspection. The sycamore leaves will curl and fall - tough and leathery - some of them will last until the next season relatively intact. I’m going to do a leaf post each month through the fall…so stay tuned.

Dandelions

The dandelions beat the application of pre-emergent on our lawn this year. We have quite a crop. The flowers are low to the ground so that the mower would completely miss them. One year I had my (young) daughter take a little basket and fill it with the flowers. She enjoyed plucking them as they nestled in the grass almost like an Easter egg hunt; but there were so many buds waiting to open and produce seeds that the exercise did not diminish the dandelion population in our yard.

I’ve read that the colonists actually brought dandelions as a garden plant - used for salads. The greens taste bitter to me although supposedly if they are harvested early enough they are less so. The flower petals add an interesting color to salad; they don’t have much flavor (which may be a good thing).

This year my husband has already started his battle with the dandelions by spraying them. We both know that it is likely a losing battle.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in April 2013

We’ve had a cold spring in Maryland. The plum and cherry trees are not yet in full bloom so I’ll wait to post photographs of them later. The hyacinths and daffodils have been blooming for over a month. Perhaps the cold has kept them vibrant for longer than usual.

The iris, tulips and lilies are up. The deer have eaten the tulips to the ground and the lilies are only looking a little better because their foliage grows rapidly after the deer have eaten the above ground parts. The iris either have not been found by the deer or are not tasty enough for them. 

The chives and lemon balm are up in the garden. It’s been too cold to do the usual garden clean out so I tell myself that the old leaves make good mulch for the tender plants.

The edge of the woods has waning daffodils and spindly forsythia.

 

The maple branches have been trimmed so high that the only up close view of the blooms is finding a recently downed twig in the grass. The tree itself seems to be blooming unevenly this year. There are lots of red tuffs at the crown of the tree and only sparse ones in the middle and lower part of the tree.

Spring is here…getting more established every day. A few warm days will get us all out working on cleaning out our garden beds!

Around our (Maryland) Yard in March 2013

Early March is still winter this year but there are a few signs of spring. The hyacinths are up and their buds are showing, the tulips are just out of the ground -their leaves still spiraled and tipped with pink. The debris from last year’s lilies is protecting the tulips from the deer. The cairn is still tumbled. The buds on the maple and cherry are not quite as advanced as they were at this time last year although they are enlarging compared to last month. Only the very tips of the maple twigs are turning red so far. The aging self-fungus and moss add some welcome color among the browns of winter. The pine cones and tulip poplar shells lend texture but continue the brown theme of winter.

Fallen cairn

Tulip

Hyacinth

Shelf fungus

Moss

Pine Cone

Tulip Poplar shell

Cherry buds

What if gardens replaced grass yards?

What is the value of a grassy yard?  Why is it always in the picture of an ideal house? Do we really need grass to hold the place around the house between the street and other houses?

It has uses and advantages. Children can play there. Grass tends to have dense enough roots to hold soil firmly even if it dies back in winter.

But there are disadvantage too. Most grass needs to be mowed; depending on the type of grass and the amount of moisture, this can be a frequent chore. And to look good it needs to be fertilized and weeded. It is very easy to put more than enough fertilizer which then causes streams to receive the burst of nutrients after each rain (adding to the pollution from other sources they already carry). It is a lot of work and consequence for a grass yard.

Why aren’t more grassy areas being turned into gardens? Food prices are going up but they have not gone up enough to motivate many of us to become new gardeners. I am a small time gardener but I have big ideas. I’m not going to enlarge my garden bed this year but I am going to plant more food items than flowers like I have in previous years. And maybe I’ll get even more ambitious in 2014 and make a larger garden where the grass still grows in 2013.