Last Saturday, I gathered leaves from the edges of my street and the public sidewalk and arranged them in my yard–about 80 pounds of free mulch!  You can read all about this technique in my earlier article.

Today, here in Pittsburgh, we have snow on the ground that fell on November 12.  It’s compacting my autumn leaves down onto the ground to encrust the hibernating winter soil.  And I’m sitting inside wiggling my chilly toes and sorting photographs, and I needed to see these reminders of spring!
This was April 13, 2019.  Four months from today, my garden will look like this again.

Winter feels long, but it always ends eventually!

See how many of the leaves I swept into the flowerbeds last autumn were still there in the spring?  They kept the bulbs and roots cozy so that my perennial plants would come up again.  My favorite thing about the early-springtime garden is how it just happens all by itself.

If you didn’t gather your free mulch before the snow fell, it’s not too late!  At the next thaw, go scoop up some leaves.  They might be kind of soggy, and you’ll probably get pretty cold, and it won’t be as much fun as raking fluffy dry leaves . . . but coming inside for a hot drink will be wonderful, right?  Everything in its season!

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