All set for a long winters nap

Well, this is it for this season me, Tam and the kids cleaned up the rest of the garden last week. We got it all tilled up, or I should say that Teejay got it all tilled up and ready to go for next year. He did an awesome job except for that one time he chased Tam with the tiller by mistake. Larissa cut everything up small to go into the compost and saved all the seeds coming off the spent flowers. Only thing in the garden now is the brussel sprouts and they are looking mighty good. I have taken all the herbs and broke them down into smaller plants and brought them inside. We will see how they do. So far they look ok except for the basil looks a little wimpy.

The spring bulbs have been planted and this year everything is marked so no surprises next year, Maybe! All that is left to do is feed the birds and turn the compost. speaking of which, I so need to get a composter. Right now I have two bins made from wooden pallets and it works great but with the garden I generate a lot of compost and I can't get it to compost fast enough. I'm looking to get one of those tumbler ones maybe. If anyone has a thought on this let me know.

One good thing we can use the porch now. We have actually put two camp chairs and a small table out there to sit at on nice days. We had lunch out there today. I need to stop using this porch as a work porch and use it to enjoy the yard from. Next Year!!!!!!!

So it is good bye for now and see you in January, no planting but a lot of thinking going on at that time, probably will start the seedlings the end of Feb to mid March. Thanks to everyone who has read the blog and has left comments it was fun keeping track of the garden this way. Have a Happy Holidays and a safe and warm winter.

ALL COMES TO A FULL CIRCLE

Well things are starting to wind down now. The pumpkins & squash are ready to harvest and be put to bed for the season. The beans & tomatoes are still producing but are starting to slow also. We just pulled up the last of our carrots. It's sad but also gives promise to the new season coming and using the lessons we learned from this season.

My niece has been helping me in the garden for the past few weeks. We are learning together and hopefully she will help me plan next years garden and be more active in it. I have really enjoyed seeing her work in the garden.

Here you can see my niece Larissa harvesting some green beans. These beans are actually growing out of the back of the compost. We never planted these beans. There is a weird shaped tomato plant growing out of the side of the other bin. As I was saying she is learning to garden and last week I was showing her how to deadhead some flowers and what it means to do that and that the flowers will actually grow back better. So, I gave her a pair of clippers and set her to work on some mums that are in the front window boxes. I was working around the corner. I could hear her clipping away and then she said to me "boy aunt Shari there were a lot of dead flowers on these". As I rounded the corner and looked to see what was going on I had to laugh because all that was left of the mums in the window boxes was green stems and some buds. They have been completely DEADHEADED AL RIGHT!!!!!!!

So I'll end this blog for now. I'll add some pictures on the end but please take a look at the slide show it is a log in it self on how the summer went this year.