Putting the garden to bed

It was such a beautiful autumn day today, that I was thankful I had finished up the canning yesterday while it was cold and blustery so I could spend today out in the fresh air raking leaves and cleaning up the garden beds in readiness for winter.

I like to rake the leaves off the lawn and onto the garden beds to protect the perennials and as I have no trees in my yard apart from a single Bing Cherry, I don't have a lot of leaves of my own to rake. Most blow in from my neighbours' trees and as I have gradually been adding to my perennials over the last number of years, I am now at the point where I could actually use more leaves.  I'm probably okay for this year -- the trees aren't completely bare yet so there will be more leaves to rake in another week or so -- but it's something to think about for next year.

Pulling up all the dead zinnias, cutting back the dead peony stems and trimming back the dead hosta leaves makes the yard and garden look nice and tidy.  I could have stayed out all day, but by mid-afternoon I had had enough and it was still so warm in the sun that the deck was calling me to sit and enjoy a glass of wine.  So that's what I did!  Besides, next weekend is supposed be nice and sunny (although much cooler) so I will continue my clean-up efforts then.