Go West, Young Man!

Autumn Blaze Maples
Ben's Creek Nursery's Iles Farm

Go west, that is, if you want to see some fall leaf colors in early October. From where I sit in the North Carolina piedmont,  the leaf changes are spotty at best.The real action, where you'll see some of the most spectacular leaf colors on the planet, is west of here: the mountains!

 

At my elevation, a mere 387 feet above sea level, leaf change is predominantly determined by temperature: the colder it is, the faster the leaves will change. In the mountains, however, the shifting weather patterns only nudge things along. It is elevation that primarily determines leaf change.This means that if you're a leaf watcher, you can choose your best time to travel, and know that somewhere in the mountains, at some elevation, you can find some peak colors a-happening.

So where and when should you plan to go to the mountains to catch this dazzling array?

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Let the Parade Begin!

Herewith another recent project. This one involved work done in preparation for a local Parade of Homes, wherein we built the landscape from the ground up. UPDATE: see the results of the Parade of Homes competition at the end of this post.

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