I'm gathering seeds from my native plants. I'll leave the stalks up until the spring, I'll probably do a burn then.

I also got hooked into helping create an 8 acre "children's prairie(whatever that is)" for some church property. Since I've never done this kind of thing before...it should take up much of the winter.

Planting out a few things after clearing a suitable area, pulling up japanese honeysuckle sprouts (easy to spot as they are still green), and gathering a few seeds.

Also brewing up some aerated compost tea (currently on my second batch). Takes two days to make it and 1 hour to use it up! But then I only got the 6.5 gallon brewer.

And last but not least: enjoying the last few days of fall color. What a season of color it's been in Georgia!

Putting seaweed mulch around my perennials,building another rock bordered garden bed,drying the wild rose hips I picked last week,getting ready to hibernate!!!

I am chopping fallen leaves with my lawnmower and using them to mulch. In one place I an trying to create new woodland wildflower beds, so I'll dig the chopped leaves into the soil In another area I am trying to smother Garlic Mustard and Burdock so I cut the weeds with the mower, add a foot or two or whole leaves -preferably maple which form a better smothering layer than oak - and then top it off with a foot or chopped leaves. The chopped leaves don't blow away as easily as whole leaves so they help keep the mulch in place. A thick mulch will almost completely eliminate the garlic mustard as long as I don't let new seeds fall on top of the mulch.

Since norway maples are the last maples to drop their leaves,they become obvious this time of year.I,m spending time killing the last of them on my property.Their small saplings standout too so I,m hunting them on the forest floor while they can't hide.Its has become apparent to me just how detremental they are the the local forest ecology and their ellimination is tops on my list.The norway maple free zone is beginning to extend beyond the eight acres under my control so discussions with the neighbors about the removal of weed trees will be necessary before I do anything beyond my property line,but I've made sure to mark them all while they were obvious for later destruction.I've also purchased two hundred feet of five foot welded wire fence to erect protection around the voluntere shrubs and trees I want to protect from browsing deer this winter.In my area,anything native and or evergreen has no chance of survival below the five foot level without some sort of protection and many local species have been descimated by overbowsing.The cages consist of ten feet of fencing bent into a tube,placed around the shrub and pinned to the ground with pegs made of eight gauge wire.I have dozens of them scattered thruout the woods,unsightly but necessary.More work will be done on the perimitter fence this winter hopefully to be compleated by this spring.I'm planning to enclose the four acres surrounding my house making the individual cages inside the fence unnecessary.Outside the fence,though, they will be permanent,

NYWoodsman, have you tried the plastic deer netting? If so, what do you think of it?

Other things I have been working on: clearing drains, hitting garlic mustard with a weed whacker (don't know if it will help but I can't resist), picking up trash, raking leaves off of pavement and steps, pruning off damaged limbs, attacking a few norway maples, consolidating debris piles, making new debris piles, a little mulching, putting the hoses away, and making property edges look more formal to give prospective dumpers the idea that the property is actually inhabited by people who care.

gosh, i have been collecting seeds from my cosmos. it just overtook my wildflower bed this last year. take a peek:

but a little bit of something else peeked through:

does anyone know what this tall yellow flower is??

so this year, i am collecting all the cosmos seeds, and am going to attack with a rich collection of oxeyed daisies, shasta daisies, bladk eyed susans, babys breath, cornflower, farewell to spring, foxglove, & red poppy (again!). now i'm organizing how i want 'em all arranged. and yes, mother nature will have her way with them too. sheesh!

and i'm taking out a few trees to give me some more light....so i can make a nice hedge out of skip laurels. :) this will tie in nicely with the original hedge i planted:

i

Well...I'm gathering black walnuts, finally decided on the right spot and planted my witch hazel. Just walked around my woodland yesterday and enjoyed the last bits of color in the dying leaves. I'm tired and ready for winter.
VG

The electric company sent crews through to clear around power lines this fall, so we have LOTS of wood to cut and stack, and they left a load of wood chips for us to use, but that will wait until spring. I covered the oriental poppies with wire cages for the fall/spring to protect from the groundhogs - so far they've only bothered them when other vittles get scarce. I removed some of the logs bordering the woodland garden I've been working on in favor of rocks (to be finished this spring also).

We just finished wrapping another 2 dozen trees with chicken wire. I always thought the biggest problem we'd encounter in our woods would be deer, but it's beaver. We lost 2 dozen 60 foot birch several years ago before we realized what kind of damage they were doing, so after I cried a bit we wrapped about 70 birch and aspen trees. Now after a break last year they came back this year for the maples, so we got back to wrapping. I understand from my neighbors complaints that the beaver have moved on to new ground - I'm just hoping they don't come back for the oak/ash/beech next year. :o(

I spent the weekend hauling mulch to a new area of trees/dogwood so I don't have to mow around them, and I planted about 150 tulip/crocus/daffodil bulbs in the lawn area between some old elms that border the property. Not exactly natives, but they sure look good coming up in the spring. I have sowed all my native seeds, remowed, gathered and now just have to wait til spring for the results of my efforts! I think about it all winter. Another 8 hours or so, 80 wheelbarrow trips and the mulching should be done!

I inspected the continuing carnage that is our woods this weekend. High winds and rain brought down more limbs and trees. The arborist came to deal with the dangerous tree conditions and I mourned the rest. I also continued in my never-ending mission to cut, pull and otherwise kill the invasives.

stackpopper - your tall yellow wildflower looks like Oenothera biennis.

WOW, everyone sounds like you live in the beautiful country. Anyone have a bed and breakfast? I live in a town/city but still am busy with thinning and throwing out.
I TRULY ENJOYED READING EVERYONES AGENDA!!
NICOLE IN SAN DIEGO

I,ve noticed autumn is a good time to combat nonnative weeds.They seem to hold their leaves longer than local species,becoming more noticable in the barren woods.Besides norway maples,shruby honeysuckles,euonymous,barberrys,privits and grandaflora roses are all exposed,to be ripped out,by their late-autunm color.The almost evergreen rosettes of biennials,such as garlic mustard,dames rocket,burdock and dockweed also make them standout .Cutting them back now is a useless chore,though,as their energy is hidden in a large underground tape root that's hard,or impossible,to pull up.If lopped off,they will merely resprout in the spring. But I do take notice of their positions and map them for later seed collection during the summer.In this area of new york,at this time of year,just about anything still green in the woods besides evergreen ferns,is a weed, Lawn grasses,clovers,ivies,vinca,pachysandra,wild garlic,all the detierus of the suburbs,begins to look very much out of place and easy to target.

NYWoodsman, I've had the same observation about autumn. I do a lot of "weeding" in the autumn and winter. The lower temperatures also make it easier to work without overheating. I do cut back many of the woody and viny invasives during this time even though many will resprout in spring because it helps to reduce the overall volume of the plant. You are right about garlic mustard being able to come back. Many of those that I lopped a while ago have grown back. In some areas that I try to keep more pure I have hand pulled the garlic mustard rosettes on days when the soil was moist. I have done this before in some areas and was happy to find that I had many fewer garlic mustard plants to pull up in the spring and summer in those areas. This is labor intensive and on hands and knees however so I save this for the really special areas.

Bob64,I do the same thing.It's very hard to walk past a GM colony without harassing it especially when they're so promenent this time of year, and sometimes I find myself on my knees with my noise to the ground pulling up as many plants as possible.But I try to resist the temtation.The problem is that many roots don't come up whole,even in the softest soil,and whats left behind,sprouts and set seeds in the next season.These resprouts are slightly delayed in flowering and become out of sync with the rest of the population.I think the most efficient use of effort is to wait till the end of the flowering cycle,when the plants still stick up above the surrounding vegetation and are still flagged by their white petals,to attack them.I usually spent the greater part of a month at the end of the spring exculsivly involved in this task ,yanking them up when the taproot is at its woodiest and most likly to come up whole.Then its possible to pull and collect thousands quickly.Also waiting till spring takes advantage of winter-kill.Not all the plants will survive the cold and there's no reason to weed something the winter is going to finish off anyway.I try to confine my efforts to a particular time period,since there's so much else to do the rest of the year.But waiting for a plant to set seed before weeding it is a strategy I only use on biennals,woody plants are fair game anytime[although beware of poison-ivy vines without leaves].Bob64 it seems we are involved in simalar efforts,I enjoy comparing notes.

NYWoodsman, I also enjoy comparing notes. I am in Westchester and, if I remember right, you are in Dutchess which is not so far away ecologically speaking so we should be dealing with many of the same issues. I have inadvertently found myself with a handful of leafless poison ivy vines on a number of occasions so I know exactly what you mean about that. You are also right about the GM but I just can't resist sometimes - especially in an area I have taken special concern for or if there are only a few rosettes in the area. This dialogue is helping to expose the time management issues that come with restoration work. I made some areas relatiely free of GM by pulling them in late fall but this was at the expense of doing other things with that time. I initially started with the goal of saving as many mature trees as I could which I think was correct. But now I have more nuanced decisions to make like which invasives are the highest priority and when. I have pretty much surrendered to vinca for the time-being since to tackle it would require abandoning so many other pressing issues and at least some of my natives can grow with the vinca. After four years, I am starting to get a feel for what projects are best done in what season and which invasives are the biggest threats but there is still a big learning curve ahead.

Spreading native seeds in my little woodland backyard and making my own native wildberry suet cakes to use over winter.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA

Stackpopper: I concur w glen: Oenothera biennis, commonly know as Evening primrose, a wonderful flower.

Here in Indiana, I have been stoking the fire and enjoying the coming of winter. My seedbeds are planted and I will wait for Spring. "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." -Ecclesiastes

Bob64,My method of dealing with viney perennials,such as vinca and japhoneysuckle,is to surround and conquer.I first define the perimeter of the investation by,creating a trail clear of vegetation compleatly around the patch making sure the vines are completly eradicated on one side and confined to the other.That way the vinca is prevented from spreading any futher.Once done,there is very little maintainence in keeping it confined as any runners that jump the trail will quickly be visable and easily pulled back.Then I can attack at my leisure.Since I'm tring to preserve the intergrown natives I attack during the autumn when the natives are dormant.Burning small piles of brush in the middle of the patch is my usual way to clear the ground and then pulling everything that sprouts in spring and summer is how I slowly erase it.I find allowing tall vigorous natives,such as goldenrod and blackberries to reclaim and shade the invested area while constantly harassing the weed will hasten its complete eradication.

NYWoodsman, thanks for the tips. Burning is not something I can get away with around here. But the surround and conquer idea sounds useable. Today was probably the last day (if not already too late) to feasibly use RoundUp on some of my invasives so I spent some time on that. Even now I had to be careful of some natives that are still a bit green like smilax. I have noticed that the goldenrod and blackberries are some of the natives that can hold their own around here as well. I think I will start another thread asking whether other people use herbicides and maybe start a discussion on the pros and cons. I use RoundUp when conditions allow but I came to this grudgingly and out of desperation.