frost warning for tonight.
not much left in the gardens that will be hurt by frost so that is ok.
yet, i'm struggling with acceptance that the gardening season is almost over when it comes to what we have planted, what we will harvest yet and such.
we do not have a lot of cold winter crops in. nor will we likely ever have (because most of them Ma won't eat or use). silly to me, but i just try to work around what i can.
again, acceptance.
the tomatoes, well, most of them were picked and then buried to feed the worms. we'll likely have about 35 quarts of chunks put up (a normal year we put up 100-150 quarts of tomato chunks and tomato juice). c'est la vie.
onions doing well, fennel mostly picked and eaten, beets still need to be picked and put up, a few melons, dunno if they will be ripe or not, sure that a frost won't be good for them, hope we actually do not get that cold tonight after all.
rest of the things to do are mostly picking the dry bean crop when they get ready enough to pick. i'm trying to not leave much on the plants for long because of our cool weather and frequent rains. if i can get it picked before it rots or the critters get it then i'm doing well. this i can certainly accept. :) finding some new crosses again and that is fun and interesting. this won't be a huge crop, but the one i enjoy the most when it comes to long term satisfaction. i enjoy sorting (both the tactile and visual aspects) figuring out the new colors and shapes, etc. and it can go on throughout the winter when not much else is going on. i know i get this trait from my Ma as she loves to pick rocks on the beach and then sort them into various piles for her projects. i've been known to resort some just because...
the soup peas, i thought were a complete loss, but we had a few sunny days that helped at least keep the fungi from getting into the peas them- selves. the pods look bad, but the peas are ok. will likely give them a rinse and dry off after shelling them to remove any spores tagging along (or at least reduce the count a bit).
the challenge this winter is to convince Ma that we don't need to leave the gardens inside the fence fallow next year just because we had one trouble with the buckeye rot on the tomatoes. leaving the ground bare is not good IMO and i can plant a root crop like garlic or onions in those places and it will do just fine. besides our peppers, onions, fennel, beets, beans, etc. have done well enough (if you discount the groundhog feasting).
a few gardens to fiddle with, figuring out where to plant some garlic, still not too heavy work for me (the hand still needs time off to heal), some inspecting of the roof to finish up any remaining issues before the warrantee runs out, some caulking before winter, ... picking some morning glories before they spread, ... then soon enough winter will be here.
acceptance? i'm just not ready to be cold yet. by January i might get there...
songbird