Alas, the garden has been put to bed for the winter. The time had come.
As you know, I had planted some things for fall, but those things were not thriving if they were even growing at all. The slugs around here were feasting, so it was more frustration than anything.
There are still a few things waiting for the first frost which should be any day now. The two types of tubers are dug up after the frost. And the sweet potato will get harvested this weekend frost or not. The leaves on that are starting to die off, so time to dig those up. (or since they’re in a pot, turn the pot over and sort through the dirt)
Surprisingly, I’m still getting some raspberries. About every 2-3 days, I can go pick a small handful and get about a half an ounce.
There are still some peas, beets and kale growing in the main garden. I’ll keep an eye on those and see what they do.
But for the rest of the growing areas, I have added about 6+ inches of garden mix soil (mix of compost, fertilizer [horse apples] and fertile mulch) and covered everything with leaves.
My suspicion has been that the soil is not nutrient dense enough for growing vegetables. My hope is that with a good amount of amendments this fall and another good amount in the spring, next year’s garden might do better.
I have also put some leaves around the base of the strawberries (which are also still growing berries, just not ripening) to put those to sleep for the winter. I’ll get a bit more of the Japanese maple leaves and bulk that up this weekend as well.
It amazes me what is still growing in spite of little sunlight, tons of rain and colder temperatures.
This year’s harvest from the backyard has come to 129.2 lbs. Tubers and sweet potatoes still to come!
Winter is coming!! Time to start planning next year’s garden.