Fall is here in the Ozarks, yoyo season. Winter watch is on as days alternate between fall and winter.
On the Hills
On the hills the trees are sporting their fall colors. It’s interesting to watch the change creep over the hills. Robust summer green takes on a yellow tinge for a week or so. Overnight the tinge becomes the dominant color as hickories, pawpaws, elms and hackberries turn various hues of brilliant yellow. Oaks take on a dusky red.
Wind comes through for the winter watch. Leaves start their spirals to the ground. The black walnuts are first to have bare branches except for the walnuts. These seem to delight in watching me pick them up, then littering the ground again.
I miss walnut season. No one is buying walnuts in town this year. That’s a shame as my trees have big crops and I have a friend willing to cart them away, those not left for the squirrels.
In the Garden
The garden too is on winter watch. Light frosts, a couple of hard frosts have laid the summer crops low. The summer squash had buffers around it and the plants are still trying to grow more squash.
Tomatoes are gone. I’ve pulled the vines off the shade house and will put plastic over it for the winter. Cabbage, bok choi and Chinese cabbage need little protection, but grow faster with warmer air around them. The Chinese celery and rosemary need protection.
The raised bed has already been covered with plastic overnight. For now, the cover is pushed back as fall is in style this week. Winter watch begins again on Sunday.
Tadpoles still swim around in three rain barrels. The ones with legs might beat winter. The ones without will perish when winter pushes fall away leaving ice on the water, branches bare and a garden put to bed for a few months.
