November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear. Sir Walter Scott Mid-November Notable Native Trees and Shrubs The November landscape has a sepia coloring, reminiscent of the rotogravure section of the old Chicago Tribune. The leaves of the Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) fell in October, but those of the [...]
Tag Archives: Autumn
FALLEN LEAVES–Part I
FALLEN LEAVES–Part I The City of Elgin spends $1000’s of dollars every year disposing leaves from private property. Is this necessary? Let’s not be so quick to have them hauled away. Fallen leaves can be beautiful. The ground was blanketed with wet leaves of every hue from livid crimson [...]
Flames of Scarlet and Gold
Flames of Scarlet and Gold Frequently seen on magazine covers and calendars in fall, Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) is the quintessential tree of autumn with its brilliant scarlet, tangerine, and topaz foliage. It’s the first shade tree to color, starting as early as late September, continuing through the end of October. A majestic tree, it [...]
Fiery Foliage
…and the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame, September Song Fiery Foliage There are abundant trees, shrubs, and vines whose leaves “turn to flame” in autumn, reflecting the fire of the setting sun. The earliest, beginning at the end of September, are Virginia Creeper, various species of sumac and serviceberry, and our favorite [...]
More on Asters and Grasses
More on Asters and Grasses I can’t help myself. All last week, whenever I would step outside my front door, whether to get the mail or pick up the newspaper, I would run back into the house for my camera and take more photographs of all the asters. Aromatic Aster and Prairie [...]
Astounding Asters
Astounding Asters I have way too many asters—Smooth Blue, New England, Aromatic, and Heath in my prairie gardens and Short’s and Side-flowering in my savanna gardens—that is, until September. Now I’m emerged in joyful aster exuberance, exultation, abundance, generosity, verdancy, lushness, luxuriating in asters, intoxicated with asters…well. look for yourselves: I’ve been so busy [...]
Through the Year 2011 in My Garden
THROUGH THE YEAR 2011 IN MY GARDEN JANUARY I neglected to take any pictures at my house last January, so I’m showing you a photograph of June’s stone stairway that I did take. Last year, in February, I featured the grass, stone, and snow of the Geneva Riverwalk, but if you have a [...]
Prairie Grasses in Late Fall
The big show is almost ended by the first hard frosts. Although the tall grasses provide an encore with their rich burst of golds, winey russets, and shades of bronze, the great host of prairie flowers now exists only as dried stalks with stripped seed heads, and a few pods clinging to frost-blighted stems. Then [...]
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Wild Ones: Northern Kane County Chapter
Through the Year 2012 at my House
January 1, 2013 • Categories: Pat's Comments, Through the Year • by PatHill
Through the Year 2012 at My House January 12, 2012 My front sidewalk edged with snow-covered Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis) *The lowest temperature of the year was 5 degrees above (recorded on Jan. 15th, 19th and 20th) February 9, 2012 My front street corner. February 23, 2012 Patio through my studio [...]
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