Take a Bow

The wind whipped Lazy Laura's skirt up, and now it appears that she is taking a bow.  This seems quite appropriate, seeing that she has watched over the garden (while looking quite exquisite) for another year.

Lazy Laura takes a bow

We have had a couple of freezing nights in the past couple of weeks, and I have covered the tomatoes, peppers and the girls' garden.  Today I decided that the rest of the tomatoes weren't worth saving any longer, so the girls and I pulled them out, after picking the good ones, and gathering all of the fallen ones for the chickens.  We also dug the remainder of the potatoes, and the few carrots, beets and parsnips that actually grew.

There is still a bit of color in the garden, although it has been nipped by frost.

My Marigolds

Pineapple Sage

Another colorful worker in the garden

The Asparagus is 5 feet tall and has red berries.

The garden was kind of a bust this year.  The dry summer, combined with the fact that our soil is mostly clay and we need to keep adding compost and manure, left us with few and early potatoes, withered corn, and cracked tomatoes that rotted before they were ripe enough to eat...pretty much like the rest of the country.  We did get some peas this Spring, some beans, and more small, super-sweet Grape Tomatoes than we could keep up with.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend helped me pull the remainder of the corn stalks, and with the tomatoes out of the way, most of the beds have been weeded and are ready to be tucked in for winter.  The plan this year is to cover the beds with a layer of newspaper (to stop weed growth), then cover them with manure.  Hopefully by Spring, we will be able to mix everything together with the broad fork and then plant...no more tilling.  That's the plan...

In the meantime, J had a long weekend for teacher in-service and parent/teacher conferences, soccer remains constant, and work is continuing on the tree house.  Stay tuned!