Fall

Fall is well on its way in the garden.  The last of the tomatoes are ripening slowly.  It is amazing that we have any tomatoes left at all.  Usually there has been a good frost by now.

The maple trees have really turned a beautiful scarlet color this year in anticipation of dropping its leaves.  The green ashes are all very vibrant yellows.  The mountain ashes are a bright red.

It is quite satisfying to walk around the yard or pull up into the driveway and see the results of 5 years of hard work plainly displayed.  The shrub poplars on the edges of the property are a good 12 feet tall.  The green ashes went from miniature to about 5 feet tall.  One day we will be parking in the shade.

The Barker cypress are another foot taller and have filled out since two years ago when one side got burnt to a crisp in the winter.  Same with the Leland cypress which actually look pretty good although two of them died that fateful winter two years ago.

Several of the Austrian pines are as tall as I am.  That would be 5'8".  The rest of the pine trees have all put on at least a foot of growth.  The new guys out in front of the Secret Garden are alive and doing well [of course, I had to replace the one that was closest to the house due to accidentally not getting any water on it but the little new guy looks great and he's only a little behind his friends].

The Jeffries pines and Douglas firs all look fantastic and are growing like gang busters.

The hackberries have languished as teensey weensey trees until this year.  Now they are still very small but working very hard and have grown to aout 18 inches high.  I bet they put on several feet a year from now on.

All the mountain ashes look great and are 2 to 3 years old.  The one for the back yard is a bit slow to get bigger but maybe next year it will put some size on.

All the locusts [black and purple robe] have grown tremendously and really make the yard look like it has trees when you drive by.

The tree poplars have finally hit their stride and should be growing fast for the next few years.

The fruiting mulberries have been a real challenge.  Gophers got some of them.  We keep replacing them and some of them finally got over 3 feet tall this year.  A few are still pretty small.  We thought they would grow really fast but those little guys have taken a surprisingly long time to get established.

The buffalo berries from 2 springs ago are as tall as I am and the ones from this year are still small but very healthy.  I am looking forwards to my hedge around the veggie garden.

All in all, gardening is more or less done for this year except for the hard work of clean up and hauling in manure for the veggie garden.  We are also, hopefully, going to haul in some more flat rocks to finish up the pathways.  Of course, we still have to finish home improvement and get out there and cut some firewood.  One thing at a time, I suppose.