When Summer Leaves



 I've never found the end of summer easy to cope with. I hate cold, darkness and the threat of being stuck in the snow on my way to and from work. Autumn has made me apprehensive throughout my adult life. It has brought me only a wish to hibernate until March.   Even Christmas is something only to be endured because it brings with it the shortest day - a real event in my yearly calendar when all my paganism emerges. On reflection I have spent half of my life (all the autumns and winters) waiting for the other half to kick in. Something of a waste  really is the immediate reaction to this. 

Now it is October my garden looks a mess. I have a really huge tree overhanging my garden. It's not mine so I can't do anything with it. I think it might be a lime as it drops lots of fluff in June. Now it is shaking off thousands (no exaggeration,  you should see the size) of leaves onto my garden. They are all over the lawn, the plot and the patio. They float in my wildlife watering stations and cling to the roof of the greenhouse muffling the light. They block the gutters and drains. Yet another reason to hate autumn?

But, becoming a gardener casts a new perspective.  This need to tidy up gets you outside and exercising.  Leaf mould is acknowledged to be A Good Thing. Let them settle on your soil, collect them up and make compost - set some aside for a year and you will have a useful product. I should learn from this. In autumn we should retreat and take stock, letting the events and activities of the calendar year settle and inform the next push of activity to begin when the shortest day has passed. 

To make leaf mould, simply stuff a load in a sack and keep them damp. Or maybe you could dig a big hole in your growing plot and bury them. Perhaps psychologically,  trying to do anything else is flying against nature. Sleep all you can this season and try and let everything else take care of itself.

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