Gathering Leaves

So two pretty exciting happenings for the Musical Gardener yesterday.  

First of all I picked up my 30th follower.  Welcome to Rae of The Old Weather Vane .  I hopped on over, checked out her blog site, was impressed and joined as a follower.  Check it out for yourself.

Secondly Arleen at Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe who has been one of my long time followers (yes I know I've only been blogging eleven months) has nominated me for the The Versatile Blogger Award - my first award nomination.  If you haven't checked out her site before, it's a great read, and she sees and tells life like it is.  Thanks so much for your kind nod my way.  I will figure out how to best respond in the next few days.

 

As I've blogged throughout the year, I am almost surprised at how much of the year is actually spent in the garden. Here it is late November and I was still in the garden on Saturday.  This time it was dumping bags of leaves.  I go around in the fall and collect a few truckloads of bagged leaves from the curbsides and put them on the ground.  I will rototill them in next spring.  The leaf mould has certainly vastly improved the soil over the few years we been here.  I know each bag probably breaks down into less than a shovel full of actual dirt, but in the process they add great organic matter and leaves are full of trace minerals, which my veggies love.

Another truckload of leaves pillaged from the neighbourhood.

Ready to dump.

Three loads, I put on the garden this fall.  The other loads I have stored in the greenhouse until spring.  They will serve more as mulch next summer, once plants are already up.

My hoophouse is half full of next summer's mulch

So here is the garden with the leaves dumped, but not worked in.  I'm hoping that we don't get a huge wind before we get a good soaking rain or snow, otherwise my leaves may all end up in Kansas.

The Daily Quest

This is a new daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer.

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle: It's a turkey

Today's Puzzle:

Word Morphs

Can you change a leaf into dirt in six steps (one letter at a time, all must be common words)?

a) L E A F

                                          b) _ _ _ _ (hint - in your pencil)

c) _ _ _ _

d) _ _ _ _

e) _ _ _ _

f) _ _ _ _

g) D I R T

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

Don't forget my Musical Gardener Contest

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.