Leafing through Spring's abundance

© harrington

Hi! Thanks for visiting. Before we get started on today's conversation, the daughter person tried to leave a comment on yesterday's. Since the functioning of Blogger's comments function seems erratic at best, I never got the comment so she sent an email with a link about attracting indigo buntings. Thanks, daughter person. Now to today's topic(s). The interesting stippled patter you see in the picture is caused by an infrequent visitor to Minnesota called sunlight. The tan background is caused by a superabundance of oak leaves. Since the predominant trees (not counting buckthorn) on the property are oaks, especially near the house, oak leaves everywhere are to be expected. Today, four adults spent unconscionable amounts cleaning up last year's (actually, several year's worth of) oak leaves from the flower beds, driveway edges, air conditioning unit, and similar locales where an abundance of oak leaves is more of a hindrance than a help. The green shoots you see are day lilies. I suspect that many, but not all, of them are tawny (orange) day lilies. I recently read that most day lilies don't spread across your property. Tawny day lilies were specifically excluded from the well behaved day lily category. Since we have an annual abundance of oak leaves (that would be a sustainable supply to some folks, since it seems as if they continue to drop forever and ever) and oak leaves help make soil acidic, I believe. I've been contemplating the idea of using oak leaves to mulch large (currently nonexistent) beds of blueberry bushes on the sand hill in back of the house. Supposedly, blueberries like acidic soils. The big unanswered question is whether this could grow (pun intended) into a "pick your own" farm or whether the local deer and bear populations would leave (no pun intended) the literal "slim pick'ens" for humans after such critters enjoyed nightly forays into the aforesaid blueberry patch. These are among the more interesting and perplexing current considerations of this aspiring country squire. Before we get to any of the berry patch kids stuff, however, we're going to confirm or deny the prospect that clover (as a replacement for dead lawn) is basically immune to canine urine. I'll let you know after next winter. What laughingly passed for lawn in front of the house didn't make it through last winter and the major culprits seem to be two of the now three dogs in the house. The third wasn't here last winter so she can't be blamed. Besides which, she's my dog which makes her almost always blameless. Thanks for listening. Come again when you can. Rants, raves and reflections served daily here in My Minnesota.