- Burning Spear
I like leaf raking, and I'm glad we have a maple tree, the whole process puts me in touch with my roots. In previous years i have dug them in, like my father did, but this year i am going to try to compost them in a pile. Might it be a ground cover/ fertilizer, or will today's hurricane winds prove my plan to be folly? I put straw over other layers of the leaves, it's just that i took this picture after a few loads of fresh leaves. Leaf raking is a good way to maintain a seasonal dominance over your living surroundings, don't be beaten down over "work you have to do" just do it and reap the rewards. It feels good to also use things on site for other purposes. If i wanted to be modern i could just leaf blow all my crap onto the street and have the city pick it up for 15 dollars. Of course living in the U.S.A an honest citizen can opt out of paying this insane "tax" and clean up the leaves myself. Imagine the idea of some Governmental wing trying to gouge me for 15 big ones, and at the same time rob me of my god given free organic soil amendment.
It's now that i start to eyeball the neighbors leaf supply... my father in me says it would be a good time to get more organic material for my soil, to help break up the clay, and provide extra nutrients. If they land on the street i get them fast because of course i am paranoid about importing toxic road compounds. If they stay on the street for a bit and get wet, i file them into the yard waste container that can deal with a small amount of leaves.
Dad and I use to drive around the the local streets and pick up bags of leaves, like midnight robbers... until that unfortunate time we imported some new weeds... lesson learned, always know the contents of the stuff you compost in your garden. Again; don't compost your old diseased garden plants IN YOUR GARDEN... it is best to get that disease out of the garden... let the city deal with that stuff... that's what tax dollars are for.
And here is another photo of the oven... but what does it have to do with gardening? Well a couple points... 1) it's kind of awesome, so it's doesn't really need to be on topic... it's mere existence becomes the topic and super cedes any other topic by default. 2) It's out by the garden, which is more incentive to get out to the garden to bask in the glow of the oven. 3) you could even gloat more by drawing a parallel between using your leaves on site, and using your clay on site. 4) who cares about a stupid garden if we are thinking about firing an oven...
Where was I... i was composting leaves, then i started dreaming about ovens, then i had to eat a bagel... and then i started dissing gardens...
But seriously the garden is life, much like the Ocean... on a roll here. You have to respect the garden... every season gives the opportunity to "load the spring" for maximum harvest. A garden is not something that plays a "2 season game"... we live in a world with 4 seasons, and just because some bearded mouth breather wakes up on a warm spring day and dreams he'd like to be a gardener, that doesn't mean the garden wasn't there for the past half year.
The garden that brings people together, keeps people together... social living is the best.
