10 Things to Do with Fall Leaves

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Whatever you do, don’t leave them out on the curb in big black bags, or put them in your trash can. Fall leaves are free fertilizer and organic matter, and are beautiful.

  1. Give them to a gardening friend (like me)
  2. Shred by going over them with a lawn mower
  3. Leave shredded leaves on lawn
  4. Use shredded leaves as a mulch for planting beds
  5. If they are in a planting area, you can leave them be
  6. Till or dig them into to an annual planting bed
  7. Add to or start a compost pile
  8. Take to local green waste
  9. Let your kids jump in them, or better yet, go jump in them yourself
  10. Make fall crafts featuring leaves

fall

This picture is from a few years ago. In this area, I mowed all the leaves and simply left the leaf mulch there. You can see this area was thickly covered by leaves. Super thick piles might need to be used elsewhere, but I found that by doing it a couple different times over the course of leaf fall meant no raking. Leaving the leaves there without shredding/mowing can result in lawn death. Which might not be a bad thing, I’m a big fan of reducing lawn. 

 

Sometimes

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My children

excited for mac and cheese, yell and clap their hands in excitement.

wrestle, and run around the house in giggles and sometimes tears

create odd situations, like stickers on the toilet

forgive quickly and effortlessly.

help pick garden vegetables

smile and laugh at crazy dance parties.

play joyfully in the car when it breaks down

My toddler

kisses by licking my face and blowing a raspberry.

cleans up every spill he sees

repeats about any word he hears and understands: the best one was a perfectly clean, “Happy”

does somersaults off of exercise balls with mom, again and again

My preschooler

loves when he gets a simple matchbox car

performs puppet shows narrated by mom over and over again

stays up late in anticipation of his birthday

tells grandma he hates the puppets she gave her, but then plays with them anyway

got a new book he’s read before and said, “I always wanted this book!”

asks so many questions, and wants to rate everything

reads books over and over

cake

I get bogged down with things to do, with car repairs, closing delays, with children who can be exasperating just because they are children. But life is good, and full of sweet precious moments to treasure.

Wanting Faith

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I thought I would share some thoughts I have had recently about my faith: my beliefs that comes from membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I don’t know 100% that the church is true. I have felt a feeling that mirrors a loving hug  when I needed it the most, which I believe comes from a loving Heavenly Father.  My life goes surprisingly well when I follow it’s teachings. (Although never exactly what I plan.) But I do not have all the evidence or experiences that clarify every question, dispel every doubt, or prove that all the doctrine is true.

To me proving that this church is absolutely true is not that important anymore. It is answering the question: Do I want it to be true? My answer is yes. I would rather believe in God, and Christ, and prophets and covenants than any other beliefs.

Sometimes I think people let doubt get in the way of their faith. I have. I have not wanted to believe. But those times are usually accompanied by blackness and not a lot of happiness. The best, happiest times in my life are also the ones accompanied by increased faith, and obedience to the doctrines of the church.

I want the church to be true. A reoccurring, upsetting theme in my dreams is scenarios where the church changes its doctrine, basically meaning that the church is not true. I much prefer the consistency of the church and the happily ever after promises.

(If you want to know where some of these thoughts came from, watch Life of Pi, or this talk.)

Dry Plants

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Here is my list of plants for dry sites (specifically meant for my sister living in the middle of nowhere Nevada, although my knowledge of growing them comes from northern Utah). All these plants usually survive with little to no additional water after the first year or two. They also need good drainage, and low fertility soils. Most are native.

Shrubs:

Fringed Sagebrush (Artemisia frigida) or Big Sagebrush (A. tridentata): Growing sagebrush in the garden isn’t for everyone. But consider it in the lower maintenance areas that are seldom seen in the garden. It makes an excellent backdrop with fine grey foliage.

Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius): An evergreen shrub that can function as a specimen plant or even a hedge.

Rubber or Yellow Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus or C. viscidiflorus): Yellow blooms in the fall, with fine grey foliage similar to sagebrush.

rabbit brush

Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra):  These taller shrubs sucker, creating a small grove. Good for covering an area.

rabbit-rhus

Threeleaf Sumac (Rhus trilobata): Good fall color and form. Dwarf cultivars are available. My go-to shrub for massing and low hedges.

Perennials:

Desert 4 o’clock: (Mirablis multiflora) This plant spread out from a single tap-root. It has purple flowers in the summer that open in the evenings. Works well on slopped sites.

Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata): Yellow blooms all summer than have the scent of cocoa. It is my favorite fragrance plant. Looks better with less care.

chocolate

Sundancer Daisy (Hymenoxys acaulis): Extended summer bloom of cheery little yellow daisies. Can benefit from deadheading, but not required.

apche+daisy

Blue Flax (Linum lewisii): Blue flowers in the spring. The plant tends to die out or look horrible in the summer, so plan accordingly.

Other plants worth trying:

  • Moonshine Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
  • Crag Aster (Aster scopulorum)
  • Puckered Sundrops (Calylophus lavandulifolius)
  • Mountain BeeBalm (Monodella odoratissima)
  • Palmer’s Pensetmon  (Penstemon palmeri)
  • Globemallow (Sphaeralcea)
  • Prince’s Plum (Stanleya pinnata)
  • Yucca
  • Native grasses
  • Cacti and succulents

Many of these plants and pictures are from the Utah Botanical Center. As always, check with your local extension office for information suited to your region.

Fall Drive

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The goal was to drive up to Willard Peak. The leaves were varying shades of yellow and red, and it was quite a lovely drive. At least until we ran over something and started to hear the hiss of the front tire deflating. Joe and his brother quickly changed the tire, but we decided to head back. Toward the end of the mountain road, we took a short hike. I like hiking better anyway.

valley

leaves

path

hiker

Judgement

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Our life has been somewhat exciting, although The Fox played far too often in our home last week. All of us can sing it now (minus Mr.C who doesn’t sing). We had a busy weekend, with both Joe and I going to workshops and traveling down to my parents on Sunday. All of my siblings and their families were together for the first time in two years. That was fun.

I had a thought while we were doing an activity at the workshop I went to. (The workshop was on permaculture, and what follow is mostly unrelated.) I started doing it and noticed a huge change in the way I thought about everything. Basically, I decided to stop passing judgement, but simply observe. Even if I do decide something, I assign it to myself. So I see someone. I can think, She is fat and ugly.  This would be judging, and not a very nice one at that. Instead I could think She is a larger person and I don’t like the way it looks. Not a big shift, but it no longer blames other people or things for my own opinions. I can even do it with myself from, I am a horrible person for yelling at my kids, to I yelled at my kids. It made both my kids and me sad.  Which one is actually going to help me stop?

It certainly isn’t limited to bad judgement either. How many time do I look at something good or beautiful and instead of rejoicing in it, become a bit envious? Her house is beautiful…..often leads to thinking that my house isn’t. But Her house was clean and she had artwork up that I liked is not only hard to lead to envious thinking but is a far better compliment. I’ve heard similar opinions on complimenting our children. I don’t say they are smart or beautiful or that craft looks nice. I say they tried hard, they are clean, and that picture has a lot of purple on it.   Just something to think about, and for me, something to work on.

Native Plant Garden

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I came across a couple native plant gardens, while wandering around up on the USU campus. Fun to fine, when on college campuses there tends to be a lot of lawn and mass plantings (necessary for the large-scale nature of the landscape, but still a bit boring).

chocolate
Chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata)…the smell is far better than the appearance, and this one even looks quite nice. 

circle
 path
triplet
Here is a fun fall combo, rabbit brush,(Chrysothamnus nauseosus) desert 4 o’clock (Mirabilis multiflora), and sunset hyssop (Agastache rupestris). 
zausch

Rabbit brush,(Chrysothamnus nauseosus) and Zauschneria (Epilobium canum….or Zauschneria latifolia if you don’t care about botanical name changes.)

 

Marshmallows

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mallows

This is my explorer. He climbed up onto the counters, into the cupboards and foraged his breakfast while mommy got ready. His choice of jumbo marshmallows didn’t fly. Mommy moved them into a different cupboard. Undeterred, he moved the stool, climbed up and got them again. There were many tears when the marshmallows were firmly put away in the highest cupboard and he was offered cereal for breakfast.

 

The Problem is the Solution

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I recently went to a Permaculture workshop up at USU  It was excellent. If you ever have a chance to hear Joel Glanzberg, don’t miss it. One of the principles we talked about was that the problem is the solution. Here’s two writer who did just that: a gardener started eating the weeds growing in her vegetable garden, and a native-plant enthusiast  used her “weedy” driveway as a plant nursery.

Other ways to turn the problem into the solution? Here are a few:

  • Use fall leaves as mulch. (Or drop them off at my house. It is beyond me why anyone would willingly get rid of their leaves….it is the best form of free mulch.)
  • Let the clover grow and provide free fertilizer in the lawn
  • Feed grasshoppers to chicken or other animals
  • Use the death of a plant to plant something better
  • Put kitchen gardens close to the house or in the front yard
  • Use unique native or adapted plants for hard-to-grow areas