Tucked into bed for a long winter's nap

Here is the Before picture - the way everything looked in the middle of November when lots of our neighbor's trees had provided leaves for mulching.  Unfortunately, those oak and tulip poplar leaves don't collect in neat piles or get chopped up before delivery.  The perennials were mostly still green, providing nutrients to the roots for next year.  You can see the light blue of the Chesapeake Bay, and the darker blue line of the other shore.  More about that later.

So, here is After. The big Fall clean-up is done.  There are many tasks involved, but the most important is a final mowing of the lawn to cut the grass short for the winter.  Since we use a grass catcher, it also vacuums and chops up all remaining leaves that have fallen.  It results in a mixture of the grass and leaves, which with good rain and the right weather, can begin decomposing.  It is never done by spring, but makes good compost over time.

There are several things that step forward in the winter season.  For example, the informal, mixed evergreen hedge in the "back corner" of the labyrinth, visible in the top left corner of the "after" shot.

Here is a closer view. Starting from the left is the juniper that runs along the top edge of the slope, with a golden thread leaf false cypress barely visible between it and the tall grass.  Then a winter berry, two Sky Pencil hollies (trust me, there really are two there), a Chesapeake holly with an equally tall gold thread leaf cypress next to it, then another Sky Pencil holly, and a clump of tall grass at the edge of the road. Not yet tall enough to be seen are two Osmanthus bushes on either side of that solitary Sky Pencil holly - next year they should really begin to make themselves known.  Scattered on the ground are low, spreading dwarf hollies and hellebores.  I love the mixed green colors, different textures and shapes that provide screening.

In the more private part of the garden, behind the house and only visible to our neighbor on the North side, the Heather Bed was at peak color a few weeks ago.  Although many of the heather have died in hot, dry summers, there is still a nice mixture of perennials shrubs and grasses.  This shows the "spreading rosemary," at the bottom left, which according to the label would only be a foot tall.  Wrong!  But it takes heavy pruning in stride, and is becoming wonderfully ancient looking.  There is red from the spirea next to it, and behind that the flowers of the 7 foot tall grasses growing much further down the slope.  The bright yellow in the center left is the lone surviving Clethra which really wants more water than it will ever get on this steep slope.  Then you see the trees from far down the slope and on the "flats," our name for the filled in area with houses barely about water level.  Visible is the top of one of the houses built on stilts to avoid water damage.    

In Calvert County, both the county and the real estate agents talk about property that have a "seasonal Bay view."  This means that during most of the year, the Chesapeake Bay is hidden by all of the leaves on the trees.  But for a few months, starting in November and ending in March, all can be seen.  The county assumes even a short term view of the Bay is worth more than none at all, and has a higher property tax rate for the privilege.  Our property is charged at the much higher "Bay view" rate, even though large portions are just seasonal.  So, here you can see the seasonal view now open from the center of the labyrinth.  I will talk about the odd shaped wild cherry tree in the center, next time.