falling down

I looked around this morning and noticed that my giant sweetgum tree (info about sweetgums) has less than 20% of its leaves left. The maple dumped all its leaves within two or three days. Not the sweetgum, a quite majestic tree. It takes its time in releasing its star shaped leaves. But since we are down to the last small amount, I think that this weekend will be the end of major leaf mulching for the season.

Of course, sweetgum will then start unloading its spiked seed pods by the hundreds. It will take three weeks or so for them to fall and for me to rake them up. I sometimes put them on beds as a mulch (which works -- two years ago I waited until December to plant some bulbs. The ground was already frozen solid, except in the beds where I had layered the sweetgum balls). Some use them around hostas with the hope that the balls jagged edges will tear the mucus lining of slugs, menace to hosta leaves. Next year, I will take spray coffee on my hostas. A study indicates that slugs don't like caffeine.