Monday, October 27, 2008

Front, back, micro, macro

Even though I have a perfectly good, dedicated home office space, every day I work at my dining room table. I sit in the seat that allows me to look through the living room and out the front windows, to the yard and to the park across the street. Just outside the window is a plant called a Tree of Heaven, which my sister the horticulturist informs me is called "Tree of Hell" by those in the trade--because it can be invasive and is nearly impossible to remove or kill.


It's pretty, though, isn't it?

Our back yard is dominated by two towering trees--a shagbark hickory (on the right below) and an oak (at the bottom of the frame is our garage). These are two of the many reasons I wouldn't trade living in an old house.


Yes, that's a lot of leaves. But here's what we learned from our neighbor: Just crunch 'em up with a lawnmower and leave them. Forget raking!

Thanks to Jenny from Nyack Backyard for inspiring this post! It's a front door/back door meme started by dlyn. If you want to join in, just step our your front door and snap a photo, then do the same in the back. Leave your link at dlyn's.

13 comments:

Kirsetin Morello said...

As long as your plant is nothing like poison ivy or nettle, who cares if you can't kill it! I move that horticulturists hereby rescind the "tree of hell" nickname and give it to the aforementioned beasts. (I know, I know, they're not trees.) And, yes, I've had a run in or two with both of them.

Lovely shots, by the way. Quite pretty where you are!

Patois42 said...

What a view! It's what I like about living on a lot with loads and loads of trees.

Magpie said...

We live in the forest too. Many many leaves. It looks pretty where you are.

dlyn said...

I love those old tress - they are so beautiful! Thanks so much for playing along. It is fun getting around to everyone's blogs. take care!

JGH said...

Cool! Those are some pretty and unusually shaped leaves on the tree of hell - and there's nothing like having tall towering trees in the backyard.

Anonymous said...

Oh! Thank you for giving me permission to stop raking. It's been ridiculous. We have piles all over our lawn and the leaf sucker truck thing went by this morning. But we'd hardly even made a dent!

I like this meme. Might have to do it later this week...

Anonymous said...

I love leaves! Piles and piles of them. I miss having little kids to jump in them though. What a great tip about putting them through the lawn mower though!

Heather said...

Yep, my husband mulches the leaves up with a mulching mower...good nutrients for the grass.

Fun meme! I'm going to do it too!

Kimberly said...

I'm so doing this tomorrow. You want to talk leaves? Just wait. I bet my leaves can beat up your leaves any day. ;-)

Pretty pictures. Love the oak tree.

Lady M said...

I do miss piles of leaves for jumping.

ewe are here said...

Love the big trees, especially the bright yellow leaves.

As for plants from hell, bamboo is high on the list, I believe. Almost impossible to get rid of the stuff.

We've put in trees in our new yard... but they're not destined to be huge, sadly. Our yard isn't that big.

Tree said...

Love it!

Anonymous said...

Gosh, I think we live in the same neighborhood! Trees all 'round.. Lovely. The way it should be. :) I am inspired by nature so having a tree view is priceless while working.