garden therapy

it has rained SO much over the past two weeks!  feeling a mite symptomatic of garden withdrawal, i remedied this today.  i started the morning by getting our new gardenia in the ground.  i planted it next to my poor, struggling gardenia - which might, you'd think, be a bad idea.  because why is the first gardenia struggling?  but i tend to be an optimistic (and opportunistic) gardener, so in it went!  even through the recent rain, i've been loving the zinnias that continue to bloom in my summer plot.  i, especially, like the quirky ones.  i think the tall stand of goldenrod was blocking some of the afternoon sun, so a few of the zinnia took on some twists & turns.

zinnia

the goldenrod had a short bloom this year - or, at least, that's how it felt.  maybe i've just been busy.  the yellow tassles are long-turned to seed & no more insects prowl around the stalks.  the yard is, slowly, being tamed by the change in season - the exuberant summertime growth fading back to reveal the garden's bones.

autumnal goldenrod

the sweet olive bloomed a few weeks ago.  &, right next to it, is our sasanqua camellia, which is covered in pink flowers right now.  a last sweet sip for the bees before death or hibernation, i'm not sure which.

but, mainly, what i did today was...rake acorns.

i will hazard a guess that there were (are) 893,716 acorns in our front yard.  actually, let's just call it an even million.  this is the first year in a looooong time that i have, actually, raked acorns.  i usually just save my efforts for the leaves.  but we are swimming in acorns this year!  it is downright treacherous out there.  the tricky thing is, what does one do with a million (or so) acorns?  i try my best not to make the yard waste picker-upper-people irritated at me.  such as loading innocent-looking yard waste buckets with a million acorns.  that's enough to get the handles of your yard waste buckets yanked right off.  so i am feeding the acorns to them slowly.  thus, our yard currently resembles a minefield of prairie dog mounds.  except the mounds are made of acorns.  (either that or i've made a really nifty obstacle course for when the boys play football.)

in memoriam...what remains of the pronged dogwood.  we miss it.

i really should've done a 'before & after,' but you can just reference the close-up of the acorns and imagine that over the entire yard.  i think i raked for at least three hours.  to do half of the front yard.  so, now, my acorn mounds await empty buckets.  then i'll do the other half of the yard.  so, pretty much, i will be raking acorns forever.  my mother has suggested renting a pig, which i am starting to consider.

 from the perspective of the acorns,

many of which my rake yanked loose from the soil

where they were attempting to turn into trees.

it does seem that i have managed to alleviate all garden withdrawal symptoms.  they have been replaced by extremely sore arms.  and shoulders.  and back.  and legs.  let's just call it my entire body.  i consider that a fair trade.