halfgeek.codes

This post could be filed under "Things I Wish We Had Known When We Bought the House."

We've found a number of things about Texas life just sort of "happens." The weather cooled from the summer into what is now generally low 60's, which makes things like lawn maintenance easier. Not that the grass is growing — once the temps hit about 45 degrees, grass drops into neutral for the winter.

But OMG the leaves.

OMG The Leaves

We have a lovely oak tree at the front of our house. After a storm came through one night, our front lawn was BURIED under oak leaves. Oak leaves and acorns.

I'd hired a company to come take care of our lawn every couple of weeks, but I think they must have stopped for the season by the time that storm came through.

So I've been steadily working my way through getting those leaves up over the past few days. And let me tell you — those leaves are everywhere. They're all in the flower beds, they're all over the front lawn — you'd think somebody I'd made mad just drove a truck up against the house and dumped it all. I mean, these can't all be from our tree — but the tree in the yard to our south isn't an oak, and the tree in the yard to our north isn't either.

So, next year, I'll make sure I hire a company that will maintain the lawn through December.

At the rate I'm going, I'll be sucking up these leaves through the end of the year. It might just be smarter to hire a company to come out and finish this job — including getting the leaves out of the flower beds. That's my number one concern — I don't want to have material collecting there that rodents can make a home out of.