Autumn Begins

Autumn has begun in the Hudson Valley. The days are shorter, and much cooler. The leaves are changing colors and beginning to fall. However, the weather is still good enough to continue projects outside.

One of my projects is changing out deer protection on certain plants. A few years ago, I planted oak leaf hydrangeas in the woodland garden. On-line research had told me oak leaf hydrangeas were less bothered by deer than other varieties. This turned out not to be true, so I built wire cages to surround them.

This past summer we have definitely had less deer damage than in prior years. This is the first year the hydrangeas on either side of the bench have been allowed to get leaves. Deer have eaten all the leaves in past years. They did not bloom this year, however there were many hydrangeas that did not bloom this year.

This is a photograph of one of my oak leaf hydrangeas in the woodland garden. It has outgrown the metal cage I built for it. Fortunately, the deer left it alone.

We have had a lot of rain in the past couple of months. Wind and rain results in a lot of downed branches. Late summer pruning also provided me with many branches. I used collected branches to construct a new enclosure for the hydrangea.

Deer can still poke their heads into the enclosure to nibble. It is impossible to stop them completely. The purpose of the enclosure is to stop them eating every leaf off the plant. If the plant can survive a few years, it will be large enough the nibbling of the deer will not destroy the plant. I will then remove the enclosure. After this year’s growth, I am optimistic the plant will thrive. I bought it as a seedling, so it has grown quite nicely already.

Generally, it has been a good growing season for the garden. The copious amounts of rain were a complete change from last year’s drought. The grass stayed green all summer. I am still mowing it and do not anticipate stopping soon.

When the sun is shining the changing leaves capture the light and change the otherwise green vistas of the front yard.

The enormous sycamore tree drops the most beautiful leaves. The are so much larger than the other leaves. Of course, this means a lot of raking. While the grass is littered with leaves from the sycamore tree, I will not start raking until more leaves fall from the tree. Most of the leaves are still green.

This will likely be the last rose of the year in the woodland garden. Autumn is a slower time of the year. As the flowers fade, so too does some of the work. I am thinking less about pulling weeds and thinking more about what projects should I complete before it is too cold to be outside. Like this rose, I will have another burst of activity, weeks of raking and preparing the garden for next year. I will plant newly arrived tulip bulbs, eagerly anticipating their spring exuberance, all the while marveling at the change of the season.

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
John Burroughs