Autumn's Arrival

It was officially autumn a few weeks ago, but now the weather seems to have caught up.  Temperatures are a more seasonable 50's or 60's during the day and can be into the 30's at night.  We have not had our first frost yet but it can't be that far off.

Almost all these leaves on the lawn are from neighbor Dave's black walnut trees.  Thankfully these leaves fall sooner than our silver maple tree's leaves.  That way I can mulch most of these into the lawn and use the maple leaves that fall later for mulch in the flower beds.  Even so, I usually rake back the leaves from about the tree on in this picture and let them mulch the hostas along the back fence.  Black walnut leaves have to compost for at least two years before you should use them and they affect or kill a lot of plants so I try to keep them out of our flowerbeds whenever possible.

Cool, wet and leafy.  Yup.  Fall is here and fall tasks are on my mind.