long day in the yard

Yesterday, I found myself raking three foot high piles of leaves towards the hollow behind my home. Although three feet isn't exactly an unbelievable height for leaf piles, what you need to understand is that there are areas that are three feet high *before* I started raking. Ugh!

This dilemma stems from the fact that the previous homeowners never raked the yard, coupled with the fact that the previous next-door neighbors raked their leaves into our yard. So, we get two times the leaves times how ever many years they went without being raked. Since our home is set in a woodland setting, we could just leave them be, as the previous owners did. However, these leaves are large-lobed oak leaves, which do not mulch on their own very quickly. In fact, I was running into yellow leaves from several seasons ago, still wet, near the bottom of the pile. If it were just pine needles, I'd say we could allow them to mulch, but the oak leaves have a bad reputation for sticking around like an old diaper.

The worst part about this type of raking job is that you spend hours doing it, and when you step back and survey your progress, you've barely made a dent. My wife and I have decided to try and do some low maintenance organic landscaping in this area, so the leaves must go. I just wish there were an easier way to move them. The leaf piles are too heavy and wet for a leaf blower.

Speaking of landscaping, it is amazing how spending a few hours in the yard can relax the soul and allow one to forget their online responsibilities. As such, it is easy for me to get obsessed about landscaping possibilities. I started reading books, sketching garden maps, and reading websites about Landscape Design. This site, the SLDA, provides all kinds of interesting free information on landscaping.

Although the company is based in Boston, and focuses primarily on landscaping tips for Massachusetts residents, much of their information is still applicable to other areas in the same hardiness zone. They also offer a free questionnaire to help assess your landscaping desires and needs, and it appears that this questionnaire covers any location, not just Boston. On the questionnaire there is also an option to request a free walkthrough assessment of the property, which they say is a $300 value.

I especially liked some of their portfolio pictures, particularly the ones that included water features and outdoor fireplaces, which I am a sucker for. My only complaint is that in their survey, they ask you to choose from three gardening needs to be included in the plan - vegetables, herbs or flowers. I don't see why one couldn't have all three, assuming that they have the correct surroundings to maintain these types of gardens. In fact, the questionnaire may be a bit too "black and white" at times.

On the bright side, the questionnaire may assist homeowners in choosing the one type of feature that they want the most, but most people that I know would like to have a variety of both perennials and evergreens, for example.