Sweeping Fall Away

Doug Wilber spent part of his Saturday, much as he has done each Autumn for the past 17 years… raking and sweeping leaves into a pile in front of his Sacramento home.

His neighbors along 43rd St. had or were doing the same when I visited today.

The City of Sacramento calls this time of year, “Leaf Season.” It’s when the city’s fastidious residents rake, sweep and blow leaves from their front yards into piles every few feet along city streets.  Then, every couple of weeks from November through January, city workers come by and scoop them up.

That leaf removal continues for three months in Sacramento tells you just how many trees grow there. This capital city loves its deciduous trees, which provide cooling shade in summer and warming sunlight during winter.

Even SMUD, the local public utility, encourages their being planted to save energy. Sacramento County residents are able to get ten free shade trees through a partnership between the Sacramento Tree Foundation and SMUD.

In Sacramento’s Shady Eighty program, residents can choose the desired height, shape, level of water dependency, if the tree flowers, how close or far it might be planted to structures or power lines, and – yes – desired fall color (red, yellow or orange).

Each year in the week before Thanksgiving, Sacramento streets are layered with canopies of ruby, crimson, orange, gold, yellow, green and buff-colored leaves. It is an impressive sight and worth a trip to Sacramento in addition to its great museums, bars, restaurants and the Freeport Bakery with its famous leaf cookies and other irresistible baked goods.

 

My favorite locations for seeing fall color in Sacramento County include: Mormon Island Wetland Reserve and bike trails of Folsom, quaint Fair Oaks where chickens run free, East Sacramento’s Fabulous Forties (Gracious Tudor, Colonial Revival, Arts and Crafts, California Bungalow and other grand homes along tree-lined streets numbered in the 40s), William Land Regional Park in South Sacramento and along the American River Parkway (Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail – a 32-mile paved bike and pedestrian trail from the Sacramento River to Folsom Lake).

Sacramento County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!