Late December

Arriving home, we were surprised at how mild the weather was, definitely warmer than Italy. A clear blue sky, with well-dampened earth (a good thing), greeted a morning check of the garden.

Everything is in winter mode now, with deciduous leaves fallen. The garlic is up, as are fava beans, planted in a last minute experiment. The parsley is still green, and the collards look fine. I spent some time reviewing seed catalogs this morning- what fun.

We received a giant load of leaves today, thanks to the city's vacuum trunk, an excellent addition for winter mulching. My gardening companion had called before we left, but flagged the driver down this morning.

'Recycling' fall leaves

The leaves are almost all down now, and many of our neighbors have raked (or blown) much of them to the edge of the street, for the City's leaf vacuum truck to collect.

My gardening companion already called to put dibs on one truckful (most of the rest are delivered to the Garden, where they're put to good use, too).

Oak, hickory, maple, dogwood, and birch leaves are a wonderful mulch and soil builder and we always wonder why people don't keep them in their yards! Needless to say, ours aren't going to the street; they replenish the soil beneath the trees that produced them.