Did you know?

GUEST POST by Jennifer Iseli
Fall is probably one of my favorite times. The air is crisp and the deciduous trees are in the height of their splendor! How I love spring and the promise of new life, but it is this time that I feel the glory of God and all of His majesty.

Did you ever wonder why the leaves change colors?
Leaves are like little food factories for plants. Through a process called Photosynthesis, they take water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make Glucose, a sugar that the plant uses for food and energy to grow. A chemical called Chlorophyll helps photosynthesis to take place.
There are always three pigments present in a plant’s leaves; Carotene, Anthocyanin, and Chlorophyll (the photosynthetic pigment). Carotene appears as yellow and orange, Anthocyanin as red and burgundy and Chlorophyll as green.
As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is a signal to the trees that they need to begin getting ready for winter. During winter, there is not enough light for photosynthesis to take place efficiently, so deciduous trees will drop their leaves and rest as they live off of the food that they have stored during the summer.
As they begin to shut down their ‘food factories’ and less photosynthesis takes place, the green chlorophyll starts to fade away. As it fades away, we begin to see the yellow, orange, red and burgundy colors which were covered up by the chlorophyll during the spring and summer!
Isn’t God’s creation AMAZING!

Thrifty Tip:

Use “found” objects as containers. An old boot, a broken wheelbarrow, baskets, anything that will hold soil will work. Just be sure the water can drain out. If you can’t drill a hole in something, try fitting it with a plastic pot. If you find something that has large holes (so big they won’t hold the soil, or soil washes out when you water) line it with a pressed coco fiber mat, or for odd shaped things, line it with bird netting or screen, then sphagnum moss. Soak the moss in water for about an hour, and then you can form it to almost anything.