October 24, 2017 Fall Colors

We decided at dinner to take a trip out to the Farm and begin clearing the ground for MacGregor's Garden. The only problem with our plan was that by the time we got out there the sun was already below the horizon. But the fall colors were very good, even in the heavy dusk, so I took some pictures.

You can drive along Sell Road the entire length and not find a stand of deciduous trees with such good color. I had thought that we might have to plant some color in the public right-of-way. The idea being that we want a place where people want to go and see what is going on. Our little stretch of road is a riot of Reds, yellows, and regular Oregon golds.

A nice view of the East Meadow.
Most of these are the Plum trees we have left after removing hundred of others.
Most of these won't remain where they are, we will need the space for Apples and sunshine.

Oregon native trees don't usually stay colorful, they tend to devolved into browns before dropping their leaves. The trees along the road are a mix of species, some native, most not.

Since these pictures were taken with low light, the colors a a bit lower key than the real thing. After dark they glow, collecting what little light there is in the atmosphere and shining it back into the world around them.

On the farm property itself, we have Maple, Walnut, and some others, mostly colorful, but mostly doomed to fall to our chainsaw as we open more ground for planting. Our hope is to plant many new species.

This tree is likely to remain with us.
There is a willow behind it which will not

Each of our new trees will be picked out carefully for the amount of interest they will bring the whole year around. My thinking right now is that we will use the Mimosa Tree very heavily along the path at the back of the property nearest to Dairy Creek. Mimosa has a good structure, great leaves, and flowers all summer long. Then they turn vibrant reds and yellows as the seed pods ripen to a gold color. In winter the leaves all fall off, leaving the seed pods to turn dark brown. The only time when the trees are not very pretty.

We spent the evening walking around the place until the darkness and mosquitoes chased us out. Then we crossed the road and walked a bit of the Banks-Vernonia Trail in the near darkness.

Eventually we hope to have a tree-house deck built into this little grove.
It will sit just to the right of our home site.

We didn't want to leaf. (Sorry.)

Our Walnut. Doomed!
But very pretty in the last light of Fall