The Amazing Mulberry Tree

I have never known the Mulberry Tree other than the nursery rhyme. For the past number of years, a Mulberry Tree has graced my front yard along with a towering maple variety. To my surprise, one day, I happened to see all of the leaves of this lovely broad-leafed home for birds every spring and summer... in a state of FALL.

When I say FALL, I mean, in a matter of 2 hours, ALL of the large leaves fell off of the tree. Not over weeks or even days - it dropped its leaves so fast that I actually made a video of the leaves falling.

Well, this time, this Fall, I didn't catch it happening as soon as I wished. Instead, a massive and incredible number of Mulberry Leaves had already fell.

This is the site that greeted me. Clearly, not all of them had fallen yet - but you could see them and hear them hit the ground. So I just had to go outside and see the extent of this natural and cyclic event for myself!

It would seem that our entire yard was covered in these leaves! Amazing - and yet, there were more in the tree, as you can see. So I went to the other side of the driveway. You see, just a few short years ago, the branches of this tree did not extend past the driveway... or the center of it.

As you can see, not only does the Mulberry Tree now extend across the driveway, it has now reached across onto the strip of property that separates our place with the neighbor's. 

This was a nice case of the sunshine rising in the East casting light across half of the car hood. I don't think it's suitable for framing or reproduction but it was amazing to be face-to-face with so many leaves.

Looking back at the front yard, one work kept popping up into my brain: Work. Last year, we filled 56 large garden-style bags of leaves. And this is just about 80% of the Mulberry Tree. The maple hasn't even dropped its leaves yet!

So I cast my eyes down the street to see if I could see anything similar to this phenomenon.

Nothing but a trail of slow-dropping maple leaves. Many weeks to go with these trees. Then, from across the street, I could get a full view of what happened this Fall with this Mulberry Tree in this yard...

Yep, although the Mulberry Tree is much shorter than the maple, it stretches out in every direction and therefore, when its special day occurs, it drops a wide berth of layered leaves.

As I approached the house again, I felt there had to be a way to convey the work this meant for my rake, trash bags and back.

This is the photographic angle I chose to show the immensity of the large Mulberry leaves that awaited my rake.

And so, I marvel at this amazing 2-hour miracle. I also marvel that I get the joy and privilege of seeing it happen almost every year.

Where the marvel fades is when I contemplate the work ahead.

This is the story of my Amazing Mulberry Tree.