There's nothing like a vacation to make me appreciate my backyard. Yes, California was a grand excursion, but coming home to all the lawn I have mowed for years, gardens I have planted, weeded, and enjoyed, and trees with familiar birds darting into feeders gives true and renewed happiness.

Maybe there's a bit of the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" at work, but I have been on fire with new commitment to tackling projects where complacency had been just fine. I suspect I'm not alone in this regard. Invigorated by having been away sets us in motion to finally clean out gutters, get a few trees cut down that needed to be removed, and do lots of weeding.

It's important to seize the moment in the afterglow of a trip lest renewed energy and refreshed feeling ebb away. Accomplishing the first "to do" projects seems to create momentum for more. Before long, things at home can be feeling even better than before. There's also the pleasure of seeing what has changed in the yard while having been gone, tomatoes ripening, basil ready for harvest, and flowers blooming more profusely.

E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, wrote a thoughtful essay about how we continually take things into our homes but don't remove proportionally. I like to apply that thinking to my yard as well, and this principle seems to be activated after a vacation. I see things through refreshed eyes. Clearing away old bird feeders, bedraggled shrubs, and overgrown plantings leads me to new possibilities. I can more easily do a "housecleaning" on my yard.

If you can't vacation to reset, invite a friend over and ask them to do a critique of your yard. Their eyes may give you new insight into what your yard is telling others.

Going into fall is a great time to plant. Many yards have losses from the past several years of drought and tough winter so it's time to refresh and replant. I'm lucky to have friends and neighbors who want to split their hostas, daylilies, and peonies. Don't be afraid to ask a neighbor. Some may not have my philosophy of you-dig-it-you-can-have-it. I don't like the heavy lifting anymore but still love to share. I think the best plants come from people you know. They have back stories, and I can go around my yard telling you where most of my plants came from, even after 30 years.

If you live in a neighborhood that is well landscaped, you may want to have a fall plant exchange. Just think what money you can save and what fun you can have sharing free plants. Perennials like to be divided and thinned. With new hostas, hellebores, peonies, daylilies, black eyed susans, iris, annabell hydrangeas, you can start a brand new flower bed. Don't forget trees. Many of our trees have babies. Look for maples, oaks, red bud. I would forget the ash, walnut, elms, hackberry, and box elder as they don't need any help establishing themselves.

    "Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful;

          they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul."

                    -- Luther Burbank

So if you can't take a vacation, make a garden. Spending time planning, planting, weeding, harvesting, redesigning gives purpose and joy. Our yards' yearly cycle also makes for a home sweet home.