Fall Foliage/Garden Clean Up

Welcome back.  It's been some time since my last post.  We've been busy enjoying the fall colors with weekend trips to the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes.  For those of you not familiar with New York state, these are both well known and beautiful regions of the state.

This post will include a few fall foliage photos from the Finger Lakes trip this past weekend plus some shots from my yard.  The trip to the Adirondacks in September was well before peak foliage.  I will also touch on fall garden clean up, and talk about some hardy vegetables that still remain.

To start, I captured this photo this evening in my backyard.  The geese are migrating and I caught them at sunset, as their honking pierced the quite evening.

Geese Flying at Sunset

Next, some photos from our trip to the Finger Lakes over Columbus Day weekend.  We have come to love the area with its many wineries and beautiful vistas.

Vineyard Overlooking Keuka Lake

Seneca Lake

Vineyard Overlooking Seneca Lake

Next, a few shots from my yard in central New York state:

As the gardening season winds down, I have gradually been cleaning out a growing season's worth of vegetable plants, and unfortunately, also weeds.  As hard as I try to keep the gardens in good shape during the season, by this time of the year the weeds can start to take over,  This year I actually started the cleanup process in September.

Lower Garden Empty and Rototilled

Only a Few Lupines (Perennial) Remain of the Wildflowers

The Upper Garden - Partially Emptied

The Remaining Wildflowers Before Pulling

One of the cold hardy veggies still in the garden are the leeks.  They are a long season vegetable that are just maturing now.  They can withstand frost and their flavor is actually enhanced by the cold.

Leeks Ready For Harvest (American Flag)

Kale is another cold tolerant plant.  It can withstand frost and be enjoyed late into the fall season.

Italian Kale

Swiss chard is yet another vegetable that holds up extremely well in cold weather.

Swiss Chard

Even some plants that are not cold tolerant have survived into mid October which is unusual.  Shown below is the still thriving lettuce, scallion, and pepper plants.

 Lettuce and Scallions Still Remain

October Peppers

Blog Approved By The Ducks

Thanks as always for reading my blog.  Coming next time, I will write about Project Feeder Watch   (http://feederwatch.org/),  This is a huge citizen science project that begins on November 8th.  I have participated in this study for several years.  From the website:

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.

More to come.. Until next time.