Fall Sights while Geo-Caching

 BY SKEETER

The Saint and I left our GEORGIA GARDENS, for some more Geo-caching. This trip took us to Athens, GA.

We strolled along the beautiful North Oconee River Greenway. Click HERE to read about the Greenway.

 We had a beautiful walk on a paved trail full of history. We saw an old Railroad Trestle.

Railroad trestles are so fascinating to me. I can only wonder how all that wood can hold up a heavy train for so many years.

We spotted this in the middle of an open field. A Pavilion for gnomes maybe?

We enjoyed our walk filled with beautiful views and history.

 We drove on down the road to Hard Labor Creek State Park. Click HERE to see more on the park.

 Our Geo-caching adventures had us walking a most beautiful pathway filled with Fall Colors.

 We found a Cache at this spot called "Lake View" and what a view we had!

 Tree roots made stairs for us to walk along the trail. I spotted two chipmunks within the park and I bet that hole belongs to one as well. This was the most challenging trail we have walked in a State Park before with lots of twist, hills and narrow walkways. Giving us a great workout with our walk. 

 We had never been into one of Georgia's State Parks when it was so full of people before. The campgrounds were full, cabins had patrons and the woods were full of people hiking and even Geo-Caching. It is wonderful to see so many people in the great outdoors! The group you see above were new to Geo-Caching and asked us a lot of questions about the game. We took the time to chat with them and we shared lots of tricks to the trade.

 Look at those colorful leaves which formed a carpet for us in the woods.

Look at this awesome tree.

 I love old trees such as this.

 I am captivated by such trees.

 

 Our Geo-walk took us to this spot.

 A most beautiful setting.

And inside the old gate house, we found our 200th Geo-Cache! We both agreed that we could not have found a more perfect spot for number 200. We savored the moment and picked up a Rock to label #200 for our garden. We had a most wonderful day enjoying the FALL SIGHTS WHILE GEO-CACHING, In the Garden...

*It is our busy time of year now so I will be popping in and out for the next few months. Enjoy life and your surrounding beauty where ever your paths may take you! 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

How Many Leaves Have Fallen?

From In the Garden

Quite a while back another blogger and I were talking of all the falling leaves in our gardens and we were wondering just how many leaves were falling. I also know many of us are still raking leaves and composting them, or shredding them or whatever we do with them. Have you ever wondered just how many leaves have fallen in your yard? Just look at part of my backyard-there are tons of leaves laying all about here at Tiger Gardens. What a mess! I will eventually get around to raking them all and piling them in gardens or in the compost bin but for now they are just here in the garden.

Well, I can't tell you how many leaves have fallen for sure in my garden or yours but I found an interesting article that provides a mathematical method of figuring out just how many leaves have fallen. I subscribe to Dave's Garden's Weekly newsletter and found a very worthy article by Bev Walker   in which she discusses how to mathematically figure out some statistics about leaves. Have you ever wondered how much leaves weigh? How much nitrogen and carbon leaves provide for the garden? Well then check out the article by Bev Walker. 


You all have a super day and don't fry the brains working on math problems....


in the garden....

Happy Fall Colors in Georgia

By Skeeter;
I am popping in here today to say hello and take a moment to partake in Dave's Fall Color Project 2010. I will pop back in here when time allows :-)

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving... Hello everyone! I have spent most of my Fall days in Tennessee helping my parents get moved back into their newly renovated house after the May Floods. I spent most of my time inside therefore, not enjoying as many Fall colors as I would have liked to but work came first. I have been one busy gal this Fall but everything is falling (yes, Pun here) into place for me and my family. I am ever so happy these days. I have not been into my Georgia Garden in some time but knew I was not missing much with flowers playing out and plants getting ready for their long Winter nap. This past Sunday, I found a moment to sit in my swing. Look at the beautiful view I was given in my front yard! Fall happens late in the year for us Deep South dweller's. Even though, not much color adorns my gardens, I am ever so grateful to see such beautiful colors in our trees. In this picture you can see the big Green-leafed Willow Oak tree in the middle. It is the last to show color as well as loose its leaves. The last of the oak leaves will drop to the ground in late December and some times, may last until January. What about those wonderful Crepe Myrtle Trees? They give us beautiful flowers in the summer months then again in the fall with vibrant colors on their leaves.
One flower that continues to bloom for me is the Trumpet Angel that Tina gave me from her Tiger Gardens. I just love this plant Tina and cannot thank you enough for passing this beauty along to me!
The Saint's Bald Cypress is turning a bronze glow with a bright red Dogwood in the background.
The Saint's Crab-apple is yellow... and produced some fruit this year. Hopefully, the fruit will become a meal for the deer. That was the Saints plan when planting this tree in the route of the deer.

I am glad to finally be able to slow down a bit and enjoy HAPPY FALL COLORS, In the Garden...

Leaf'ing Late

By Skeeter
I spent Tuesday afternoon with the Gas Leaf Blower in my Georgia Garden. The leaves fell sooner this year then the previous years but something kept us from getting them up on time. Can you guess from this picture?
How about from this picture? Look at the 4 drowning Silver Berry Bushes near the fence.
We had some major rains during the month of December. Just look at the small waterfall we had coming from next door!
It rained over 4 inches on this one day. The run off almost went over our driveway! The Saint and I joke that we now have our very own Water Feature in our yard. Ha..The rain did not stop on that day. We continued to have so much rain that our yard would not dry for us to remove the leaves. We finally got the last of them up 2 days ago while traipsing on the soggy half frozen ground. On a happy note, (always looking for the positive in a negative situation) we did not have to remove any leaves from the rain run off ditch this past year! We had so much rain that the flowing water kept the creek bed cleaned out all fall and into winter. December is normally our driest month so now we have gone from drought conditions one year ago, to what I can only assume will be flood conditions before long, at this rate anyway.

With our soggy yard and garden conditions, I was not able to get fresh pine straw on the landscaped areas of the gardens. I have now decided to keep leaves on the gardens and in the spring spread a thinner layer of pine straw on top the leaves. This should save me some back pains and be more friendly on our wallets as well. So the year 2010 has me LEAF'ING LATE, In the Garden...

Falling into despair

Here at the "Oasis in the Woods", I like to think of us as optimistic people. But I do live in a dream world at times. I am the optimistic one seeing my glass as always half full. The Saint is the pessimistic one seeing his glass as always half empty! I guess we kind of balance each other out though. Living with a pessimist has taught me one thing. The Bad comes with the Good...

The Good being those beautiful leaves we saw in our trees this fall.

The Good continues into the woods. Trees filling the ground with a fresh new blanket of leaves to keep the weeds to a minimum. They are like a new carpet below my Frolicking Friends feet!

Our front woods look so peaceful with the new leaves all spread about as if a professional had carefully placed each one.

Now the Bad side of all this Good. Those leaves do not stay in the woods and tend to become a problem for us to deal with...

A Gas blower solves the problem on the left side of our driveway. Can you tell I was standing at the opposite end of the driveway when I snapped this shot. That is a long driveway to walk so you get the lazy view with the second shot. You will see why I got lazy as we proceed.

Then we have to deal with the right side of the driveway...

A gas blower takes care of that problem as well.

Now we move into the backyard. We find more problems.

A mulching mower and this problem is solved!

I am hungry and would like to roast a hot dog. Where is the fire pit?

A Gas blower later, we find the fire pit!

It would be nice to sit and eat my hot dog while I take a break right about now. All that blowing has me tired and hungry but I cannot seem to find the patio furniture!

Nothing a Gas Blower cannot solve!

Where is the pathway to the patio and shed? It has vanished like magic.

Vanished only for a little while as the magic is within the Gas Blower!

Now back to the front where we need to work our Good magic over the Bad.

Ah, once again the mulching mower to the rescue! Ah, the Good. But wait, look up and what do I see, the Bad as I spot more leaves ready to fall so we can start this process all over again.

This fun game of Blow, Mulch and Rake continues until late December when all the oak leaves decide to come on down!

The beauty of the fall color is only a memory and now I am FALLING INTO DESPAIR, In the Garden...