Sunday, October 26, 2008

East Coast Envy


Under the Apple Tree

Visited daughter Grace in Boston last week and went apple-picking. Whenever I go to a more temperate climate, I always wonder why I even bother gardening. The soil, the rainfall, the temperate growing season all make me depressed about my efforts in this heat-blasted rockpile we call home.
We picked Empires and Courtlands on a gorgeous day.



Rock wall at Arnold Arboretum, Boston

This rock spews out of the ground everywhere in Massachusetts; it's a gray-green granite. Tumbling over the wall is a vining hydrangea. The Arboretum has wonderful zones of birches, beeches, plane trees, oaks, and every other specimen tree. The fall color was just beginning.







Weeping Beech

I can never get over these trees. They are huge for one thing, and their Cousin Itt drooping growth pattern is so unusual. The copper beeches are impossible to photograph; their scale is so off the charts.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We garden here because we can't help gardening no matter where we live, Libby. I'm sure we'd be trying to garden if we lived on the moon. But don't forget how beautiful---and green---Austin is in its own way. We've got a good six or seven months of beautiful weather ahead of us. Boston's looking at snow.

Rock rose said...

Come come now! You know why you garden; because it's in the blood. Love those fall colors but it's been so long since I lived somewhere with colors like that.

Unknown said...

Just remember, our flowers are blooming when the NE still has snow on the ground. I used to be so jealous living in Chicago and talking to my mom in TX in March when she would tell me what is blooming.

Lori said...

Well, I don't get 8 months of sunless winter living down here, so I call it a draw. And while it is challenging gardening in Austin, I love growing things that could never be hardy in Wisconsin.

That said, when I was back up in WI last month, the high was 76 degrees, the trees were changing colors, and I couldn't believe that I'd ever wanted to leave... :)