Fffffall leaves

Fall starts with f. So do many of the things I associate with fall yard work--which I love doing even though it can be fffffrustration, or by some measures, pure fffffolly.

For a small property, ours has many trees. Every variety drops its leaves in a different way. Crape myrtle goes early, but the leaves are small and unobtrusive--no clean-up required. Then the maples change color and you think they're going to fall, but they don't...not yet. The season has a sort of slow start, and for a while it just looks interesting to have those few splashes of unexpected color and texture.

But I still spend an early fall weekend raking the front yard. It doesn't take many fallen leaves (mine, but also oak leaves blown in from the woods across the road) to plug our street's gutters and storm drains. This first round of raking is nothing but fffffuture ffffflood management--not insignificant given our usual fall showers.

Then mid-October arrives, and everything suddenly gets blanketed in bright yellow cherry leaves. Our cherries are right on the southern property line, and the dropped leaves are sort of mushy. They make a slippery mess of my neighbor's driveway if I don't get them picked up quickly. And a day or two after cherry-fall, the maples begin to relax, and they wreak havoc on my northern neighbor's otherwise perfectly manicured lawn. So I suppose those cherry and maple raking weekends could be considered fffffriendly neighbor insurance. (They're all perfectly nice people who've never complained, which is why I didn't call it fffffeud prevention!)

Yes, this is very similar to the photo above. Isn't there just something artful about a rake leaning lazily against a tree?

Next, it's time to take after the back yard again, where my dogwood and our neighbor-behind's water birch have given up also. When I'm finished, I always think the yard look so neat and tidy despite the washed-out colors that define fall in this region.

Fffffalse security! There are still at least two more maple rakings to go. Which, coupled with seasonal winds that shake even more pine straw loose than the rest of the year 'round, makes the whole job seem like sheer fffffutility.

under the back yard maple, not 12 hours after I raked it

And finally, around late November, the driveway trees (no absolutely firm ID, but they seem to be some kind of elder), which have been completely un-green for two full months, decide it's time to let go, too. And like the maples, they do so in stages. Here's what they looked like before...

It's almost too pretty to clean up...until they start blowing into gutters again.

 ...and after I raked under them this past Friday morning. For the second time.

And yes, there are still leaves yet to fall here, too.

Like I said, though, I love yard work. What keeps me busy most of the time is indoors, so I jump at the chance to breathe in open air and earn a little extra vitamin D and exercise endorphins, too. But there's another reason all this raking is worth the effort. What I don't rake directly into the front yard's flower beds as mulch, I haul into the back yard and dump in the vegetable patch.

maple, and more maple, and more maple leaves

This year, the garden gained 28 wheelbarrow loads of maple leaves and another 13 loads of maybe-elder. Yes, I kept a tally! All that leaf mould makes for a very fffffertile kitchen garden.

Not to mention a great place for jumping in the off season. Fffffun!

Whee!

It might looks like she's Riverdancing, but no. Just happy leaf jumping.

I realize this one LOOKS like it's going to end in tears. It's just an illusion from the angle. I swear he didn't land on her knees-first. He didn't actually land on her at all.

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And, to end on another fffffestive note: We're not New England, but here you can see we do get a very brief spate of color before things go gray and brown.

a neighbor's brilliant yellow *something* tree

my dogwood

same dogwood up close = more colors