Raking Or Leaving the Fallen Leaves?

Do you want it tidy?

Do you feel that leaves are litter?

Are you afraid of what the neighbors will think if you don’t rake up the leaves?

Is your yard waste brownbagged and taken to the curb? Or are you using leaves to mulch your garden?

Most people are leaf blowing (loudly) and raking up the fallen leaves on their lawn and garden

but here’s another point of view-

“When you don’t rake or leaf-blow in the fall, this affects the soil and the biological life in your yard, lawn and garden in a positive way.”

“Raking Leaves Is Pointless—and Bad for Your Yard Scouring your yard clean is a waste of time and deprives your soil of valuable nutrients”

Another discussion here in this article

Drop Your Rake

And an article from the University of Maine


To Rake or Not to Rake

By Rebecca Long, Coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs, UMaine Cooperative Extension

“The aesthetic preference for a clean lawn, either your own or your neighbors’ (especially if you live in an HOA community), may also dictate your fall cleanup.”

A team of leaf blowers at the neighbors
-the leaves are sucked into a machine and the chopped bits blown into a truck to be hauled away
A leaf free lawn
No one has raked yet
To rake or not to rake?

A Last Rose

Main Street Lawrenceville.

A Lone Azalea Blossom in Mid October

My azalea has only ever bloomed in the Spring. and when it does bloom,the whole bush is covered with white blossoms. Today as I was taking stock of the end of the garden season I noticed a lone white blossom on the bush. It just seemed unusual to me.

Three Bees

The Daisies are in bloom.

My Neighbor Grows Dahlias

And what a beautiful garden she tends with great love and care.

Marion asked if I’d come up the street and photograph her favorite dahlias.

I was happy to see the many varieties and rich colors, making them easy to capture. The bees were enjoying all the gorgeous blossoms.

Wordless Wednesday

Lethargic bee on last of the zinnias, ooops not wordless.

Sunny Day Dahlias

Have you ever been to a Dahlia Farm?

Thursday afternoon I accompanied my friend Eileen and her daughter Lizzie to Sunnydaydahlias Farm in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The Dahlia gardens attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

We were cutting many different beautiful and colorful dahlias to grace the tables for Lizzie’s wedding this Saturday.

Rebecca showed us how and where to cut the stems, remove some leaves and provided buckets with water so we could transport them back to the venue.

Rebecca told us how once the first frost comes they will turn brown and after the third frost they’ll cut down the stems and dig up the tubers to store in double paper grocery bags to replant next Spring
A Monarch drinking lunch
A bee enjoying
Some dahlias I cut

Dahlia in Morning Light

Outside my dentist’s office for an 8 am appointment, I saw the sun shining on the dahlia blossoms.

Mourning Doves Evening Meal

At the neighbor’s feeder. They enjoy the seeds.

Their fluttering and cooing sounds remind me of staying at my grandmother’s when I was young. Mouthing doves have such a distinctive call. “The male’s signature “coo-OO-oo-oo” call sounds sorrowful and melancholic to human ears.”

Ten Things you might not know about mourning doves

Shanti Found a Praying Mantis

The deer come in the night and eat the lilies. They missed one. How Shanti (6) saw the praying mantis astounds me because it looked so much like the color of the lily stem.