This past weekend was all about raking leaves. I had been kind of lazy this fall, letting them accumulate until the last possible second before the temperatures dropped into the unthinkable range.
The Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashira’ aka ‘le Shish’) is always the last tree in the garden to turn, but it’s worth the wait, because the perfect orange color is also the best. Unlike in years past, I resisted the urge to knock the leaves off of the branches to save me the trouble of later picking them up from the ground. I hope they don’t end up frozen in a puddle, like the paper towel on the sidewalk in front of our house.
I was helped by a leaf blower that Stephen bought me a few years ago, which until now had sat unused in the basement, except for the time we used it to unblock the lint from the dryer vent. It didn’t quite alleviate the need to pick up the leaves by hand, but it did save some time and effort. The cats were horrified by the noise, but as I explained to them, we all have to make compromises.
