Hello again, savvy savers! For this weeks Gardening Update Post, I want to share some of the things I have been up to in my back yard this past week!
For my family, we have been in the midst of Fall leaves!
When I say leaves I mean leaves, leaves, leaves, and leaves; and I have a feeling that most of you are in the same boat as well! What’s difficult in my region, is that in Mississippi we have two sub-seasons this time of year.
First, we have a traditional Fall, from late August to the end of September, where leaves are falling but not the humidity! Then our season seemingly stops. The leaves remain partially green, perpetually a myriad of splotchy odd-ball colors, and the weather remains the same through Halloween. Then at last, my favorite time of the year, the true emergence of Autumn, where the humidity bottoms out, the foliage truly changes colors, and sadly, every square inch of my property becomes blanketed with the crunchy stuff!
This past week has found myself spending most of my spare time raking, sorting, and cleaning out my gardens from the same foliage, I longed for in the not so distant past.
While my yard may look untouched, I am in the process of organizing my leaves, and here’s what I’ve been up to:
- Compost: Autumn leaves, which have been chopped and shredded with our leaf vac, act as a cheap, “brown,” high-carbon, layering material for our compost bin. Simply alternate layers of shredded leaves with the regular green materials, from our lawn mower to your compost pile to sit over the winter. I aerate my bin weekly.
- Lasagna Gardening: I use Fall leaves, layered between layers of organic peat moss in my bottom vegetable garden, which is left to decompose for the winter, and is tilled into the garden come Spring.
- Mow Them: My adorable husband, Daniel, has been gracious enough to keep uo with all aspects of our home mowing. He generally starts my getting on the roof, cleaning out the gutters, blowing out the leaves that have fallen from the roof and are in the beds, to the lawn, and are then mowed over; he takes three turns for each section of the yard essentially mulching the leaves into fine, compost layers which help insulate the lawn for winter. In terms of leaf removal, this one may be the easiest solution, as it involves no raking whatsoever, just 20-30 minutes of blowing. We do this weekly until the leaves are finished falling, and your lawn will look better for it next spring and summer.
So, what have you been up to this week, gardening-wise? I’d love to hear about it!
Here’s to Fall,
