I slept late today... and even after I woke up, I didn't want to *get* up, what with the radio saying it was 1 C outside. (And not terribly warm inside... I've turned the heat on, but not very high.) It was much nicer under the covers. However, eventually I did get up, get dressed, and started working in the yard.
Today I did a pretty good job at remembering both before and after photos.
Rhubarb patch, before:
Rhubarb patch, after:
"Greens" for my compost bin:
Southerners, who have to pay money for rhubarb in the grocery store, might be rather shocked at me composting all that rhubarb... but this patch apparently doesn't produce very good rhubarb (I'm not a fan of cooked rhubarb, and I haven't eaten raw rhubarb since I was a kid, for some reason... I guess I got out of the habit), and a bunch of it was going mushy anyway.
In the first photo, there's a box. I had assumed it was insulating something. I was curious what it was insulating, so I tipped it over. I discovered that there was nothing inside (despite it having insulation on the inside), plus it completely fell apart (it had been sitting there for around 30 years, I think), so I put it with dad's junk to be hauled away.
Rhubarb leaves are poisonous (oxalic acid). People seem to be split on whether rhubarb leaves can be composted if the compost will be used in a vegetable garden. Since it was looking like I'd fill up my composter anyway, I decided to leave the leaves in a pile here in the rhubarb patch to compost (already decomposing leaves raked on top)... I figure it's safe to use rhubarb leaf compost on the rhubarb patch. ;)
The day lily is still blooming, although it's looking a bit cold:
Front yard, before:
As you can see, the sour cherry hasn't realized it's fall yet, and is still holding on to its leaves. The elms have lost some but not all of their leaves. The little tree on the boulevard is pretty bare now, though.
Random thought: American friends? Do you call the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road a "boulevard" too? (Given that it comes from French, I'm wondering if maybe you don't...)
Given how fresh leaves like to fall and/or blow in, I took "after" shots whenever I finished a section, just to prove that it looked reasonably good at one point. ;)
First section:
This section filled up the rest of my composter.
Second section:
This section filled up the pink trash can, plus more that I just dumped in a heap in the back. (I'm using the other two trash cans for yard waste that I don't want in my compost.) My friend "Vanna" here stopped by for a visit... I multi-tasked, though, and raked while I visited. (Too much to do before the snow flies!)
Third section (well, includes whole front lawn, really):
This produced another two wheelbarrows full that just got dumped on the heap in the back.
It's a small yard, and it wasn't even that full of leaves... and yet I *still* have a huge pile out back!
Back yard patch of grass, before:
(The plum tree also still needs to lose most of its leaves.)
After:
I just discovered that Flickr decided to default to small photos today. I'm too lazy to go back and fix all the photos I've already copied & pasted code for... so if you want to see a bigger view, click through to Flickr.
My big pile of leaves:
(Yes, the photo is blurry. It was getting dark by then, and I don't like to use the flash, so use longer exposure times instead. I didn't notice that the photo was like that until I uploaded to my computer, by which point it was too dark to retake the photo.)
I also rearranged some stuff on the patio, and swept some spots. Here's a "before" shot (well, mostly before, I moved some stuff before this shot):
(Whoops, small photo again.)
And here's an "after":
I still need to get rid of a lot of dad's junk, but things are improving.
Oh, I drained the hose in this photo too.
Of course, I *meant* to get farther than this... I wanted to at least *start* on bringing down the dead tree, and planting the perennials sitting in pots... *sigh*
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