Yep, autumn has definitely descended.
We’ve had some pretty strong winds here in Calgary, which has facilitated the “falling” part of the season, and now the evidence is lying everywhere:
So much for photosynthesis for this year! I can sympathize – the shorter daylengths make me want to drop, too…into the soft cushions of my couch with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book. At least I’m not changing colour, as well (unless you count the fact that I seem to already be losing my summer tan). 😉
I can never resist the temptation to shuffle through the leaves and kick them around just to hear that satisfying rustle and crunch – it just never gets old. I can totally understand the pure joy of this adorable pup (if you haven’t seen the video hit from YouTube yet, treat yourself – it’s precious!):
The “ground” leaves never last long around our apartment complex, because the landscapers come by nearly daily and blow them into bags to cart away (I seriously hope they’re “leafcycling!”). I always have to scramble to make sure I get enough to pile into my perennial beds, and to put into small bags to save as bedding and food for my vermicomposting worms. Yesterday, I scooped up a giant bag of golden poplar leaves to take over to our community garden’s compost bins – we now need a large source of “browns” to add the mountains of “greens” that we yanked out of the tired beds on the weekend during our final fall work bee.
What do you do with your fallen leaves?
(I took the photos in this post at the Silver Springs Botanical Garden, Calgary, Alberta)
Read more! Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors
Flowery Prose 
YIKES!!!
I’m thinking you’re referring to the amount of leaves we have on the ground! 😉 We’ve actually had a pleasant, long autumn; we’re relieved we haven’t had snow yet!
Cute Husky and he knows that he is filmed. Such a poser! 🙂
Isn’t he? I’ve watched the clip several times and it never ceases to make me laugh. What an absolute ham! His owner must just love him to bits.
Yes, that is a great video. Such exuberance. I try to compost most of my leaves but I really don’t get a great many. We have free kerbside green waste recycling so any of my surplus leaves go to the local recycling depot.
That’s great that you have leaf recycling – and free of charge! That’s great incentive by the city for its residents. Our curbside recycling isn’t free (nor is our garbage pickup) and they don’t take leaves. The leaves you have to take to special depots in the city yourself and drop them off. (They also have to be bagged in special bags designated just for that purpose – another cost). Commercial companies such as landscapers have to take the leaves to the dump at charge to them – so you have to wonder if they actually recycle them at all. It’s too bad – I think many people choose not to recycle anything because of the fees.
Fees are a problem! Of course, when I say free of charge that probably isn’t entirely correct because we do pay property taxes to cover these services. Every week, we have a small green waste bin that is collected and the green waste is taken to composting facilities. If a household needs a larger bin, then, they have to pay a fee for that. On the whole, though, our system for recycling is good.
Yes, it seems really quite good, better than ours. Residents here in Calgary pay the property taxes AND the extra fees, and some people are not happy about it – especially homeowners who had their own compost bins before the “green waste” system was recently introduced (it is mandatory to pay the fees whether you use the City’s service or not). Those of us who live in apartments don’t pay the fees, but we can’t compost like homeowners can (well, unless you count vermicomposting, like I do, or maybe Bokashi, which some people practice). We have to take our other recyclables to special depots for pick up, and the depots don’t allow green waste. I’m happy my vermicomposting worms can take care of some of our food waste; I wish I had the ability to do more!
Hooray for your vermicomposting worms! Is all the green waste at the community garden put in to compost at the community gardens? It is a difficult issue, recycling. Difficult in the sense of deciding what is best for everyone and the environment too. Probably the best thing we can do is to reduce, reduce, reduce as much as we can, which I am sure you do 🙂 By the way, you may be interested in the little video that I put on the sidebar of my blog. It is the trailer for a new documentary on NZ’s ‘famous’ gardening nun….or you could watch it here http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/film/gardening-with-soul Sister Loyola loves her compost 🙂
I will definitely check out the documentary – looks interesting!
I can completely understand that husky’s joy… can I join in?! Our little dog used to bury herself in the leaves sometimes, but not quite like that! We are lucky in that most of our leaves seem to fall directly onto the flower beds/rockery, exactly where they are needed, and act as a perfect insulating mulch over winter. What doesn’t rot down is removed or shuffled around in the spring. All the rest of the leaves go onto a giant compost heap. 😀
They are the best ingredients for compost and mulch, aren’t they? Free of charge and organic – what more can you ask for? 😉
Have a fantastic weekend!
I love to go through a forest and kick the leaves , walk through them, build houses wiht them… yes the kid in me emerges then….
It’s such a wonderful feeling! 🙂
Oh I love kicking the leaves too!
It’s just as fun as puddle jumping in the spring! (Okay, I’ll admit it, I refuse to grow up!). 😉
Who says you have to grow up anyway! 🙂
So true!
Isn’t that funny Husky doing what we all would love to do? I am not too fussy with leaves: keep them of my lawn, leave quite a lot in the borders to give plants and wild life some warmth in the winter: I clear those in spring and the big piles go to recycling. I was thinking f trying to make some mulch in bin bags this year. ever done that before,have you?
I’ve never made mulch that way, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work nicely – you’ll have to let me know if you have success with it!
The dog has the right idea! Playing in the leaves is one of the best things about fall! That picture from the botanical garden makes me just want to jump into it and shuffle around.
I couldn’t agree more! 🙂
Despite annual grumbling and moaning and complaining from my husband (along with the threat of chopping down all the trees so he doesn’t have to do this ever again) we grind up our leaves and throw them on top of the horse manure in the veggie garden. By spring I have an awesome base for the vegetables! Love the video. My dog Ginger gets excited when I start raking, she thinks three leaves constitutes a leaf pile and will throw herself on them.
That sounds like an awesome way to amend your soil in your veggie bed!
Ginger sounds like a sweetie; it’s so wonderful to see how dogs react to things like leaf piles and freshly fallen snow – they seem to really enjoy themselves! 🙂
I also love the leaves. The leaves that fall in the woods just stay there and the leaves on the grass get up by our lawn mower, it has a setting to mulch leaves.
So good for the lawn! 🙂
I let the leaves in the flower beds sit in place and decay. I rake up the leaves on the grass and either use them as mulch or put them in the compost. I used to steal the neighbors’ leaves for the compost but I’ve given up doing that. Great video!
That dog is a movie star! 🙂
I, too, love the crunch of the leaves and seeing them falling to the ground. I have lived where the leaves made a big mess, and smothered everything, but here, I don’t have that many trees. So, I just leave the leaves where they land.
That’s perfect – no need to do a lot of clean up! You have more time to relax and enjoy watching the leaves fall…. 🙂
I too live in a condo, but our guys are slackers. They show up 1 a month, LOL. I have seen that dog going bananas thru the leaves, totally fabulous, I loved it again.
We had some landscapers like that a few years back, but the guys we have now are usually pretty quick to get on these sorts of tasks.
I first saw that video on our local news channel – they played an abbreviated version of it one morning while I was getting ready for work. I couldn’t stop laughing, it made my day. Such a cutie!
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Thank you! Your blog looks great, I’ll be sure to follow your future posts! 🙂
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Our oak tree is just dropping like crazy. I read the other day of using oak leaves as mulch. Just adding them into the flower beds…I’m thinking about it! 🙂
Leaves definitely make great mulch…I just pile them into the beds and then remove them once the snow is good and gone in the spring. Plus, they make great overwintering sites for ladybugs! 🙂
Beautiful images — visual and prose. We compost/use for mulch.
Thank you very much! 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
I so have to stop by the botanical gardens in Silver Springs. When the kids were little we lived in Silver Springs and I would take them down to Bowness Park in the fall with several rake leaves. We spend several hours raking up the leaves into huge piles and the kids would collapse into the piles. We also would have fabulous leaf fights! I rake the leaves in the yard now and take them to be recycled at the town Eco Centre. ~Thea
The Silver Springs gardens are AMAZING, one of my favourite places to visit! I would definitely recommend a trip.
It’s so sweet to think about how much kids (and some of us adults) love playing in the leaves…. 🙂
Beautiful pictures of the fall colors. We have none here as yet but I am looking forward to them. That dog is really enjoying himself in that pile of leaves. We will be raking leaves here very soon as we have a lot of trees on our property. Would share with you if I could. : )
Thanks! 🙂 Looking after the autumn leaves can be a huge job if you have a lot of trees!
If they fall on the grass they are mowed up and used as mulch in the veg beds. All others are left to mulch the garden beds all winter.
The best mulch ever! 🙂
Great video! Our leaves are still green and mostly on the trees.
You’re fortunate to still see green leaves! The forecasters are predicting snow flurries here tonight…yikes!
Sorry for you!
These pictures are taken two days ago in Northern Germany ~ 100 km south-east fo Hamaburg.
http://utasflow.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/herbst-lowenzahn-dandelions-in-fall/
That is amazing to see – the dandelions never bloom here at this time of year!
Beautiful photos, thanks so much for sharing. Have a wonderful day!
Awesome Leaves and “Falling” write-up! My hubby and I, our teen and pre-teen, and two Mini dogs, love to rustle around in the leaves in the Fall – before, during and AFTER the roundup of masses. Ha ha. It is one tradition that like you said, never grows old! And that dog, he gave me a great laugh! That would definitely be our mini Schauzer – such an interesting character – both dogs! Sweet.
Thanks so much, Kathy! Hasn’t it been a wonderful autumn? I’m glad you’ve had a chance to get out and enjoy! I bet your dogs are just loving this time of year!