In this world where there are actual seasons, I’m watching the garden go to sleep. Sure, the greens are holding up, but today I picked the very last of the peppers and sent the pepper plants into the good light that is compost. I had enough peppers to put up 9 pints of the previously mentioned sweet pepper/jalapeno/onion jelly so that’ll be plenty until peppers next summer.

A light overnight freeze last week was the death knell for the zucchini and basil. The squash won’t make it through another one. All to be expected. The ferns are already safely inside for the winter, as is the little palm tree.  This leaves the front raised bed basically naked. It’s quite sad after seeing it vibrantly full of garden through the spring/summer/fall. It needs rest time though. The leaves are falling and I just keep digging them in to that bed. I’ve sourced rabbit poo locally (50# for $5) and will be picking some up. A few months of that in the beds plus composting in the fall leaves mulched through the mower, and those beds will be ready to go again in the spring.

The greens should hold up a little while longer putting out tons of spinach, beet greens, mustards, and kale but at some point, even they will give up and the garden will sleep for a bit. It is kind of nice that the weather provides a mandatory rest period, it gives me good time to amend soil and get it ready for spring.

The leaves are an ongoing battle with the wind here. Sometimes the wind sweeps for you, and sometimes it sends everyone’s leaves to you. I’m just sort of waiting it out and when they all finish falling, we’ll rake up what is left and mulch it with the mower for the compost.