lilmac442's Blog

This will be my very first blog ever, I am hoping that some will recognize and/or feel my pain. ; )

I have just moved back to Michigan from Upstate NY. I was born and raised here, but was married and moved to NY in Feb. of this year. Due to forces beyond our control, I had to move back here, and DH will follow in the spring. (*sigh*)

So here I am in the new (old) home with my son of 16. The yard is huge more than an acre that is mowed, and woods beyond that. There is no flowerbeds or plantings to speak of. I will be changing that as time goes by. I am already up to my eyeballs in fall bulbs that I have been purchaseing....curse you nurseries and your Fall Clearance specials!

But I digress. On this nice parcel of Gods own green are trees. what we lack in formal plantings, we make up for in trees. Lots of trees. Mostly Maple, a few box elders. Box elders, while not a beauty to behold in any season are not so bad...the leaves fall,dry and crumble to be mowed into a respectfully easy pile to be composted.

But the Maples. They give us their glorious show of autumn color. A fantasy palette of yellows,golds and reds in every beautiful hue. One cannot drive through the Michigan countryside without oooohing and aaaahing. Then you wake up one morning and discover their true wicked nature. All that beauty is now all over your yard. the colors now fading and curling. You sigh, get the rake and begin the job of trying to find your yard again. This is when you discover the true sadistic nature of the Maple. You rake and lug and haul the leaves, only to discover that while you were dumping them, a whole new batch has covered your yard. Now I know what you are thinking...wait until they all fall, fool. I am telling you its easier to rake leaves six inches deep than twenty...and that bottom three inches will be a wet slimy goo that has no colorful glory whatsoever. So you spend the next few weeks raking and learning the basic Maple phosphide:

Leaves will fall, but only when the lawn once again becomes visible.

Your trees will drop a ton of leaves that will stay completely within the boundaries of your yard.

Your neighbors trees will not....they will however  stay in your yard.

The last 1/3 of the leaves will remain on the tree waiting for the first snow.

And now I am off to rake. And hopefully get most of the aforementioned bulbs in before the Maples find out....