15 December 2005

Raking leaves

It's very zen, really, raking up leaves. But they can sure pile up.

Avant

Après

Luckily, our predecessors in the house left us a neat lawn-sweeping device that makes picking up leaves a lot easier than it would be with an old-fashioned rake.

Lawn sweeper

Some of the leaves go to good uses. They become mulch that protects flower beds from freezing weather, allowing dahlias and other plants to survive until spring and grow again.

Pretty good pile

Others get burned and become fertilizer for the vegetable garden.

Burning them
The smoke all went right toward the house, of course. But it's December, and all the windows are closed. No snow though.

Chez nous

There are moles living in the garden plots. We'll have to deal with that in the spring. Somebody said if we put moth balls down the holes the moles will go away. I hope that works.

3 comments:

  1. I was surprised to see that you burn leaves before putting them into your garden soil. It's not the custom to compost them?
    Chris P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Chris,

    I think the ashes are as good for the soil in the garden as compost is. We have far too many leaves to be able to compost them all. And apples. We can't burn the apples, so we burn the leaves!

    Ken

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Mimi,

    I guess there are just too many people (and cars) per sq. mi. in Boston. Out here in the country, we are sparse. So we have fewer restrictions. About the green, one of the things that surprised me when we moved here was the green that lasts all year long. It can get really cold here, but it doesn't happen very often.

    See you in February, I hope.

    Ken

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