Explore Outdoors ~ letting go of color

As we move toward winter, I watch the changing season reflected in my garden. Flowers go to seed, blooms fade, leaves turn color or dry and fall...

How do your plants reflect the changing season?

 

Explore Outdoors ~ Asters and Goldenrod

 

Fall is a season of colors. Leaves turning red, orange, gold... even the wildflowers are getting in on the act. You can tell it's fall in the northeast by the yellows and purples of goldenrod and asters growing in fields and along roadsides. Their beauty is eye-catching, both for people and the pollinators collecting nectar and pollen before winter settles in. 

Goldenrod and asters create a community, says Rhonda Fleming Haye. "Beyond the bees and butterflies you’ll find syrphid flies, beetles and many other insects. Goldfinches, tree sparrows, prairie chickens and wild turkeys eat the seeds, while rabbits and deer will browse the foliage," she writes for Northern Gardener.

If you can, find a patch of asters and goldenrod to watch!

Explore Outdoors ~ Fall in the Garden

 The cool thing about gardens is that they have different personalities throughout the seasons. Purples and pinks predominate in spring, yellows in the summer, joined by purples in August, and by late fall it's mostly faded petals, silky white milkweed parachutes, and ... brilliant red blueberry leaves!

 Notice the colors - and textures - in gardens around you this week.

Explore Outdoors ~ Sunlit Leaves

 

Last week I noticed that most of the trees nearby had lost their leaves - except for these few that look like paintbrushes dipped in sunlight.

Fall is the season when deciduous trees drop their leaves. But they don't all turn color at the same time, and they don't drop their leaves at the same time. Autumn comes gradually, with colors changing over the month and leaves falling in their own time. And there are always a few stubborn trees - a couple oaks this year - that cling to a bunch of leaves long after the rest have floated, whirled, and blown away.

What do you notice about the trees in your neighborhood this week?

Explore Outdoors ~ Fall Fungi

 Fall is a great time to look for mushrooms and other fungi. Some blend right in with the colors of the fallen leaves; others provide contrast. Here are a couple of fungi I came across this fall.

What funky fungi are you finding this fall?

Explore Outdoors ~ A Leaf's Point of View

 

This week, look at the world around you from another point of view ~ perhaps that of a leaf or a pinecone on the ground. 

• What do you notice?
• What do you smell?
• What are the textures of your neighboring leaves?
• Who is hiding under you?

Explore Outdoors ~ Parachute Seeds

This is the season when trees drop walnuts and hickory nuts onto our road, and purple berry juice speckles our driveway. Tall roadside weeds with dandelion-like flowers are going to seed, sending dainty parachutes out to ride the least breeze.

Sometimes the parachute fibers hang on, reluctant to leave the safety of the seedhead. After all, where will they end up? They don't file flight plans and no one has given them a map. 

Look for plants producing parachute seeds in your neighborhood. 

• What kinds of plants make these seeds?
• Collect some parachute seeds from different kinds of plants and draw them. What do you notice?
• How far do the seeds travel on a breath of air?
• What do the fibers feel like?
• What do the seeds and fibers look like under a magnifying lens?
  

Explore Outdoors ~ A Fall Walk in the Woods

 Last week we had a few glorious days filled with sunshine and temps somewhere in the 50s (F). The sort of weather that tempts beetles to wander across the lawn, and bees to visit the still-flowering asters. So I headed up the woods road to see what I could find. 

 

 

 

On the east side of the house, the forsythia has decided to show off its fall colors AND brighten up the season with flowers. I was attracted to the contrast between leaf and petal.

 

 

Then, up into the woods, crunching through a new-fallen carpet of leaves. But look! There's still a lot of greenery, so more colors on the way.

 

 

I saw a lump on the underside of fallen oak leaf. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it is hard, and covered with bumps and those wild "hairs" - it is most likely a gall made by a gall wasp.

 

 

Walking through the hayfield I came across this wolf spider hanging out on a sunny leaf. I love looking at the details of aging leaves...

 

 

This week, go for a walk in a park or meadow - as wild a place as you can find. What fall treasures will you discover?

Explore Outdoors ~ Watching the Season Change

 

The first signs of fall came in mid-September: a single leaf nestled amongst plantain and dandelion leaves. A week later, more leaves were checking out their new seasonal wardrobe, but still clinging tightly to their branches. 

 

 

Meanwhile, maple samaras formed drifts on my porch: sugar maple, striped maple, boxelder. Samaras are the papery winged seeds that helicopter through the air as they are let go from the trees. Turkeys and finches eat the seeds, and occasionally squirrels and chipmunks do. You can, too, if you want to put in a little effort. It's a bit like shelling peas, and you might want to roast the seeds.... here's an article sharing how to eat a maple seed.

 

 

What seasonal changes do you notice in your neighborhood?

Explore Outdoors ~ Last of the Garden Cats

 Last week I was weeding the small and sorry-excuse-for-a-carrot-patch when I came across a very hungry caterpillar.

Black swallowtail caterpillars love carrots. And dill and parsley and anything, really, in the carrot family. On this particular day they were dining on Nantes Fancy. Given the late date of planting, and the weeds I let go, I figured the caterpillars would get more nutrition from the carrots than I would. So I left them to it.

This is the time of year butterflies are migrating, but for these late-summer swallowtails it's too late to flee to warmer climes. Like woolly bear caterpillars, swallowtails will find a sheltered place to overwinter as pupae. Then they'll emerge in spring, ready to lay their eggs on whatever I've let go in the garden... perhaps the dill?

What caterpillars do you find hanging around your backyard, park, or street plantings this week?

Explore Outdoors ~ Fall Flowers

Happy Fall! Saturday is the fall equinox, and fall flowers are coming into their own. Like this aster...

 

Asters are composite flowers, being a composite of yellow disc flowers and purple ray flowers. The center disc flowers open a few at a time, from the outside in - you can see their cup shape and the stamens that hold pollen. Sometimes they look like spirals. 

This week take a closer look at the centers of flowers. What do you see?

Explore Outdoors ~ Shadows in the Flowers

 

 

Usually when I go walking, I look for insects in the flowers. But last week I found something just as interesting: shadows! The sun was just at the right angle to make shadow of the flowers stamens.

This week, look for shadows in the flowers blooming in your neighborhood.

Explore Outdoors ~ Colors of the Season

 Last week I was out walking and the bright splash of red against green caught my eye.

 

 Right now the greens are bright, the leaves crisp, the berries shiny. But soon - maybe by next week - they'll be covered by a blanket of snow, or exposed to icy winds. By spring, they'll be mouse-nibbled and winter-weary.

What plants sport reds and greens in your neighborhood?

Explore Outdoors ~ Shades of Winter Flowers

 This week pay attention to the colors of the flowers around you. The roses in one neighbor's garden displayed a range of hues from beige to faded peach to walnut and even colors of desert sand. Jot down the colors and shades you see. If you need some ideas for naming colors, drop by a paint store and check out the paint chips.

Winter Garden

The roses in my garden are beige, tan,

the color of espresso crema

or cafe con leche.

They remind me of desert sand

(depending on which desert),

a fortune cookie,

grade A maple syrup,

tortilla chips,

peanuts in the shell, 

peanuts out of the shell,

pecans and walnuts, 

amber, honey,

a faded peach, 

the end of summer.

The Beauty of Dead Flowers

In the past few days the temperature has taken a dive, snow has fallen, and my garden has gone from the gold and rusty reds of late fall to the brittle browns of not-yet-winter. 

There is a stark beauty to the end of the season. Without the distraction of brilliantly colored petals (and the attendant bees, flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies, caterpillars, spiders, and birds) I can see the underlying structure: the cones that held the individual flowers; the prickles and hairs on stems and leaves.

I can enjoy the beauty in the curves of the leaves…

Seedpods split, filled with seeds ready to fall at any moment …

The details of seeds waiting to lift off in the breeze…

What was once order is now all about letting go. 

Explore Outdoors ~ frost-faded flowers

 

 

after frost

 all that is left are memories

of humming bees

 

This week seek out the beauty in what is left behind after the hard fall frosts. Who knows ~ you might find a poem hidden in a secret garden!

Explore Outdoors ~ Flashes of red in the underbrush

 The other day I was out in the garden (pulling up dead zinnias) and the air was so still that I could hear the oak leaves falling from the trees. This is the time of year when the fall colors have faded from scarlet and gold to rusted orange and bronze. It is the time of year when I can count the leaves remaining on the oaks lining my drive. 

 

It is also the time of year when I am surprised by splashes of color ... the brilliant red of blueberry leaves and bright fuchsia of bittersweet tucked beneath the trees along the roadside.

 

What colors do you see in gardens 

and along roads this week?

Explore Outdoors ~ Becoming a Skeleton

 

I usually find leaf skeletons in the spring, after months of rain and snow has mouldered away the tender parts, leaving the vascular tissue (the "bones"). But sometimes I find the occasional leaf turning to skeleton before leaving home - helped along by fungi, I'm sure.

This week, head outside and look for leaf skeletons. If you don't want to wait around for spring, you can make your own. It is fun for kids, but adult supervision is needed. Here's how.

Explore Outdoors ~ Once these were Roses

 

Now they are rose hips... the fruit produced by this multiflora rose. Multiflora rose is an invasive plant, taking over fields and requiring constant cutting where you don't want them. But, the US Forest Service notes, multiflora rose hips provide food for grouse, wild turkeys, cedar waxwings and robins, chipmunks, white-tailed deer, opossums, coyotes, black bears, beavers, snowshoe hares, skunks and mice. 

This week look for the fruits left behind by summer flowers. Places to find fruits: trees, shrubs, rosebushes, and flowers. What do you see in your neighborhood?

Explore Outdoors ~ Gold Falling from the Sky

 

Early in the morning, the first rays of light turn the trees brilliant gold. It's like the leaves are burning with a fire inside of them. They may look like gold on the trees, but close-up you can see they've been battered by wind and pests. They also have their own personalities.

This week, get to know a leaf or two.