My vegetable garden is getting towards its last harvest.
The plants are yellowing and dying back, leaving lots of cherry tomatoes, ripe and green, another batch of beans, a few round cucumbers, one small squash, beets too tiny to cook and peel and lots of weeds.
Soon I’ll pull all the weeds and dying plants. I’ll leave the chard which is still tasty and the brussel sprouts to see if they produce. The rest will go to the donkeys and sheep.
I’m starting a small manure pile that I’ll spread on the soil, then I’m going to cover it to keep weeds from overtaking it in the spring before I get to plant again. My first thougth was to put blcakplastic over it, but as I started to research it, I saw there are lot of differnt options for mulching a winter garden, so I’ll have to look into it more.
I’m thinking about next years garden already.
I loved growing the lettuce and just a couple of tomato plants. The beans always do well, so I’ll grow more of them. I’ll try to remember not to grow cucumbers, or if I do, plant them in a different part of the garden. They never grow along the fence. I’ll look into what I need to do to get he beets to grow bigger, maybe loosen the soil more or add a lighter soil to it. (I don’t know about that, I’m just guessing).
Next year I want to plant some flowers, maybe marigolds, and nasturtiums between the vegetable plants to attract more bees.
I tend to change with the seasons so usually, I start to wind down this time of year. But these last few days have been so sunny and cool, in a way it feels like spring again and I’m enjoying being back in the gardens.
When you go to pull your plants, save all the green tomatoes…wash them and keep them in a bowl on the counter…they will ripen. I do this every year. They may not be as tasty, but still good.
I’ll do that Gloria.
Until this year, my gardening life has consisted mostly of reading about it. This summer I did adventure into some perennials and eventually annuals, when I longed for more color. But one thing I think I always read about marigolds planted around a vegetable garden keeps the rabbits at bay. Perhaps an old wives tale, but you may be on the right track if it is true! I did discover, totally by accident, that the hostas I planted around the area where I eventually planted the perennials satisfied the appetites of the deer. They never strayed into the area where the flowers are blooming! Who knew?
Pretty chatty for 4:30 in the morning, eh?
It’s nice to know my writing and pics have been connecting with you Susie. That’s interesting about the Hostas and deer, I never heard that before.