Cleaning up the garden is always bittersweet for me. After our recent day of snow, sleet and rain, I thought I should find out what was left and what I could harvest.
It turned out there were lots of peppers and tomatoes, a few green beans, which I ate tonight, and some peas. After I harvested, except for one hardy pepper plant, I cleaned the beds out. Since the remaining basil had turned black, I took that out as well.
I have arugula and some mixed lettuces yet. In addition, there are carrots coming on and I’m very pleased with the progress of the garlic.
I only planted twelve this fall, so it’s important that they all come up and survive. The chard is much happier than it was in August and I harvested some of it for eating this week.
Once we’re into fall, there are fewer flowers for cutting. I now have rose blossoms and rose hips within inches of each other on the same plant.
The cosmos are thriving and the calendula actually like cold weather, so I may have them for a while. Still, the flowers are pretty thin, but adding Artemisia silver king, and rosemary clippings gives me a reasonable bouquet.
I’ll have to pull weeds and lay some more mulch before too long so the garden can rest and rejuvenate in the winter. Maybe I can get to that by Thanksgiving. Then there will only be a couple months of garden withdrawal before I can start planning for the next one…