Autumn Leaves

Nobody asked but …

This time of year you have to deal with them, every one, sooner or later.  The coloring and the fall of the autumn leaves is a miracle to behold, but the phenomenon presents a few problems as well — TANSTAAFL.  You have to deal with them covering your property, choking gutters, gracing the bottoms of fish ponds, fountains, or pools.  I recommend mulching the leaves where they lay, but what about the ones which have strayed to places where they should not lay — roofs, walkways, roadways, barns, waterways.  If the leaves must be handled, can one deal with them as a collective or one-on-one?

Some people refer to the activities as leaf collection, which may signal a mistaken belief that there is a collective, one-size-fits-all, easy answer.

We pay a price for those winter etchings against the sky, those springtime blossoms, that summer greenscape, the technicolor of Autumn, the holiday platform for the twinkling lights.

Think of this annual chore as the rent you pay to Mother Nature.  You must deal with the leaves one-on-one.  Maybe that will allow you to appreciate the wide range of beauty in every leaf.

— Kilgore Forelle