How is the leaf situation at your house? The oak and maple trees on our property are dropping leaves by the bucket loads lately. I go out early in the morning to rake the leaves and by late afternoon the ground is totally covered again. 
I love it though. I pretty much love everything about fall. Even the rain and the mud. I took Lucy on a long walk yesterday after working in the yard and got a few strange looks. I was covered head to toe in dirt and a couple of cars actually slowed waaaaaay down to see if they recognized me as one of their own. I thought for sure they were going to call the snoopervising committee to report a drifter in the neighborhood.
IT. WAS.AWESOME.
It probably didn’t help that I couldn’t stop laughing and looked like a total weirdo.
Hey Metallic Grey Range Rover Guy, if you are reading this GET A LIFE. There are people in this world who actually enjoy doing their own yard work. Lighten up… and go get your nails buffed why don’t you.
Cabin fever. I have a feeling it’s setting in early this year.
Meanwhile, back in my bubble… Lucy and and I worked on planting two trees in the arborvitae hedge. She did the digging while I wrestled muddy trees out of 10 gallon pots. We are a good team.
It’s official. Summer is over. 
Everything that was growing is now dead.
And the back porch is naked. 
Everytime I look down from the top of the hill I think I need to have the HH build me another 2 garden boxes. What do you think. Would if be too much? What if the next people who buy this place are not gardeners? Would 4 garden boxes look excessive? 
Pinky keeping an eye out for slugs and chipmunks. 
Any harvest, no matter how small, should be celebrated. Especially in November.
Spring. It can’t get here soon enough.
~Mavis
This year’s garden is being sponsored by the awesome folks at Botanical Interests Seed Company. You can check out their website HERE, order their new 2015 Garden Seed Catalog, or see the seeds I’ll be growing in my garden this year HERE.
Up for a tour? Read about our behind the scenes tour of Botanical Interests Seed Company.
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Sara says
You can’t leave us hanging… what did Range Rover guy do? I won’t be able to sleep!!! Made me think of what happened to me this summer when I was working in the garden. When I am going to get dirty and work all day I put my hair in a ponytail, wear my chicken sloggers (love them) and whatever clothes are comfortable for that day’s weather. Some woman was coming to my house to pick up some vegetable starts I was offering on our local fb gardening page, but I’m still not dressing up for that… she came, got out of her car, barely gave me a look and headed for the door while saying “I’m here to see Sara, she’s expecting me”. The woman thought I was someone paid to be working in the yard!! So I said “I am Sara, I just like to look homeless when I work in the yard all day”. She about choked and rapidly tried to back peddler her previous behavior… yeesh!!
Jen says
I don;t think 4 garden boxes would be excessive. I don’t garden, but I would plant some nice easy perennial flowers in there, if I was a buyer.
Barbara says
Mavis, if you make more garden boxes would you please photograph the process and post it? I want to make new boxes and would like to duplicate yours. Thanks! I love fall, also!
Ria says
Hahahaha! I totally feel you Mavis. Living in GH is kinda weird in that sense. A lot of people here are snobby freaks and think they’re better than other people who don’t fit in their definition of “normal”.
Henrietta says
Hi Mavis, have you thought about tapping the maple trees in your back yard? I wish I had maple trees on my property but alas, I do not. My neighbors have maple trees though and I’m working on buttering them up with homemade goodies so that they will let me tap their trees early next year.
Henrietta
Teckla says
I’m all for tapping the maples — IF they are “sugar” maples. You might indeed get sap if you tapped them, but would you get the maple syrup you want? Mavis, please tell us the type of maple trees you have?
Vicki says
After looking at your picture from the top of your hill, I say definitely two more garden boxes. That space is made for it!!
Jen Y says
Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. I’m outside every day.
Your comment to the ‘metallic grey range rover guy’ telling him to go get his hands buffed so reminds me of my dear friend Mary. She wrote the following piece about man’s hands just this past week & I thought you would appreciate it. 😉 She’s another woman who loves getting outside in the dirt & working hard.
Man Hands. They should look like a man’s hands and if they are smoother or softer than a woman’s hands, it’s a problem. Growing up among rural farmers and men who worked with their hands, I remember the first time I saw a man who had a manicure with matte polish on his nails. It was as if I had sighted Sasquatch in a busy shopping mall. It just didn’t go together. What were those pretty hands doing on a man?? It was like seeing Britney Spears at a gospel tent revival. Its like a bad accident where you are horrified, but still can’t look away. These hands belonged to a guy that my sister was dating. I distinctly remembering wanting to say that I had irritable bowel syndrome so we could go to the bathroom together immediately and I could warn her against this girly man. I did not know anything else about this man except that he was obviously unemployed which explained the pristine state of his hands. If we hurried, we could still have time to slip out the back door and leave him impatiently tapping his impeccably filed nails on the table top.
Hands with calluses and slight stains are a comfort to me. I never think of them as dirty, they represent someone that is solid and dependable. They are the industrious souls who are not afraid to take the bull by the horns, sometimes literally.
Men with these hands can move or change the world. These hands usually fit well into denim or Big Smith overall pockets. These hands cover their loved ones and protect what is dear to them. They open easily to hug a child, rub a pet’s head, or to open a worn wallet for a neighbor in need. I am not too narrow minded to know that many, wonderful, loving, hard working, white collar daddies and husbands have these clean, smooth hands as your jobs don’t require physical labor. To these men, I would say I will overlook the state of your well kept hands and focus on your good character traits instead. However, it you could smudge them up a bit, or even develop some type of callous from using your laptop, it would be greatly appreciated.
Mavis Butterfield says
Love it. The HH and I were just talking about man hands last week and I was trying to explain why I like his hands so much. I am going to show this to him. 🙂 You made my morning.
Julie Wilkinson says
Your too funny. I am the neighborhood goofy person who actually does her own yard work and helps her husband put up horse fencing, fetch firewood and hay.
Margie says
Absolutely two more garden boxes!
Sylvia says
Do not let those leaves go to waste. When we built our house, 40 years ago, we had pure North Carolina red clay. We are totally in the woods. We have never wasted a leaf. We shred them and use them as mulch on my many garden areas and my raised beds. My soil is now so rich, if a seed drops it sprouts. We have 3 acres in lawn and gardens and could not afford to buy mulch for that large of an area. Leaves are God’s free mulch and fertilizer. Use every one of them. I get upset every time I see someone burning leaves.
suzanne says
You know what would be better than two more garden boxes….Another greenhouse! I’d take that over a diamond ring any day.
AmyWW says
Mavis, I think it’s cool that you get Lucy to dig your holes for you, but I’m super curious how you get her to dig the holes where you want them to be? And how do you stop her from digging holes where you don’t want them? I have visions of daffodil bulbs and beets and carrots flying out behind her. Do you always go out with her when she’s in the yard or is she just super responsible and obedient and wait to dig until you tell her to?
AlysonRR says
While I personally would want (at least) four garden boxes, I think people with small kids might want the flat space in grass instead, for playing or maybe a play structure. I think I remember that the garden area to the left is sloped, as is the area in the back.
Emily says
I think 4 is the perfect number of garden boxes. It creates a nice symmetry and seems to me like it would make crop rotation easier. I like the idea of visually rotating my tomatoes around one slot in the square of boxes each year.
Margery says
For sale purpose I would’t go with another 2 boxes, as a mom with kids green space to run around rated high on the list when house shopping. Real nice houses with out green space didn’t get a second look.
Nancy D says
Just a thought…. We have a huge oak tree and over the years discovered that the leaves don’t break down over the winter. In the spring the leaves we would pile on our garden for mulch in the fall were just as rigid as when we put them there not rotted at all. Shoveling them into the dirt was really difficult when we were preparing the soil in the spring. We found that if we run them over with the lawn mower we could catch the mulch in the bagger and use that. Otherwise our oak leaves seem to stay leathery and rigid for a year it seems!