Anchorage Daily News

At a meeting of TREErific last Wednesday night, the gathering opened with a question having to do with the upcoming holiday: "What are you thankful for?" As people around the room had their turn, we heard things like, I'm thankful for the mountains, the trees, seeing the sun, etc. When it was my turn, I said I was thankful the snow hadn't fallen yet. The two snowfalls we have had so far haven't really stuck in the Anchorage lowlands and it has given me a second and third chance to try and finish the yard work I'd fallen so far behind with. And I really do like being out in the yard-- it just feels good and I hate feeling guilty about not having finished the job.

So this weekend, the bird feeders were washed, disinfected, freshly painted, filled with seed and suet and hung in the lilac. Some leaves were piled whole on the perennial beds in the backyard to provide a protective mulch. In the spring, the leaves will be so dry, they'll crumble in place adding structure to the soil.

This year, it snowed before all the leaves had fallen but then it warmed up a bit, the snow melted and the rest of the leaves fell from the trees. A small window of opportunity before Halloween, the day I always mark for permanent snow on the ground. The lawnmower was brought out of the shed and into the kitchen to warm up a bit before running it over the lilac and cherry leaves in the backyard. Sometimes I can get this done before it snows if the timing is right and sometime I can't. I'm sure my neighbors think it's a little strange to be mowing when the temperatures are below freezing!

As I mowed, I could feel small bumpy mounds of worm castings underfoot and I knew the newly shredded leaves would be going into the ground in much the same way -- pulled down by the worms to enrich the soil and lawn. Next spring they'll be nary a leaf left on the grass and it will green up nicely, thank you. And the worms will have aerated the lawn as well, so I won't have to do it. Good little workers, those worms!

Done with the backyard -- yay! Headed to the front yard where there is garden but no lawn. A thick blanket of yellow leaves from my neighbor's weeping birch covered the driveway. It didn't take long to sweep and deposit them on the front beds. Next summer I'll be spending too much time pulling birch seedlings from the garden beds and from the gravel in between the rock pavers but there is not much I can do about that. Sometimes, I pot up the seedlings just to see how they will turn out and I now have a line-up of 2- and 3-year-old birch trees.

So far, the weather forecast for this week does not predict snow by Halloween although it looks like it's going to get colder. This may be one of the rare years when we don't have a permanent snow cover by the end of October. I'm still thankful. Looks like I'll have one more weekend to be working in the garden, and I swear I'm going to finish all the chores this time!

Talk Dirt is a garden blog for the Alaska community hosted by Fran Durner of the Daily News. Join the conversation at adn.com/talkdirt.

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