Colors in My Yard

I was admiring the increasing red in the dogwood's leaves after putting out the seed and suet feeders for the chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and other birds one recent cold morning. Like the other trees in my front and back yards, at this time of year the dogwood's flowers and fruits are long gone, so the tree is moving energy down to its roots for the winter. 

Viburnum berries (Margo D. Beller)

As the chlorophyll that makes the leaves green shifts, the leaves are going red. The same thing is happening with my azaleas, the red maple and the red oak. Meanwhile, the elms are going yellow while the white oak leaves are shifting to gold and then brown.

The viburnum leaves are green but the plant is covered in red berries. Maybe the birds are waiting for the fruit to be sweetened by frost. The old apple tree has already lost its leaves but the nearby cherry leaves, like those of the locusts in the front, have turned a brownish yellow.

The elm is taller than the oak, whose branches I
must look through to see the yellow leaves at the top.
(Margo D. Beller)

The blue spruce, however, is an evergreen and so does not change color. I wish it good morning as the wind blows more leaves from the trees to the lawn and I hear the sound of distant leaf blowers. "I'm glad you hosed the plants the other day," Spruce said. "I was starting to get rather thirsty."

As I write we're in our second week of clear, autumnal weather - cold to start, then warming quickly because there are no clouds blocking the sun. It is also very dry. If this weather was during high summer we'd hear about drought warnings daily. But now most plants are finished growing so the concern doesn't seem to be as dire - at least not yet. 

Still, the soil gets dry. I haven't had the sprinkler turned off yet so the lawn gets watered every so often. With all the plants I've already cut back I'm not as good about using the hose on them, but I do occasionally. I keep hoping we'll get some rain, but that's not forecast for anytime soon.

At some point the lawn service we now use will deal with the leaves and the blasted locust pods. For now, it is a treat to walk around the yard and take in all the colors still in the trees.

The reddening dogwood leaves (Margo D. Beller)

At this time of year the ornamental grasses bloom. Later,
under the right conditions, the leaves will go gold.
(Margo D. Beller)

Spruce in his unchanging finery
(Margo D. Beller)