Getting Ready for Fall

The wind had finally calmed down today so I could lime the garlic bed. It also got some green sand and bonemeal. Now I just need about one more week and I'll plant the garlic. Often people plant garlic after the first frost. For me that is usually around Halloween. I think November is a bit late, so I'm shooting for mid October.

The rest of the chores were fall clean up chores. I ripped out the cucumbers. I had just one cucumber hanging off the plant. It hadn't gotten any bigger for about a week. Obviously it wasn't ever going to, so I picked it and ripped out the plants.

The tomatoes were the next to go. I left in the Sungolds since they are still producing, but the others I tore down and turned the plants into the soil. Then I sowed a cover crop of oats over them. The bed will have lettuce, brassicas and peas in it next year, so I didn't want a cover crop that would be alive in the spring. I'm not sure they actually have time enough to grow, but I figured I'd try.

Then the cosmos came down. There were a few blossoms, but mostly they were looking ratty. I collected a little seed to plant next year, but the rest of it went into the compost bin. They produced an amazing amount of woody stems. I figured at the bottom of the compost pile they will act just like branches and keep it aerated.

Now with the cucumber trellis gone, only two tomato cages left and the 6' cosmos down, the garden looks short. I still have my tall pea trellis to give it height, but not much else is left. When I look at the garden from the dining room window it just seems wrong. I'll get used to it. It seemed that way when the bean tepee came down too. But for now keep having that feeling like something is missing in the garden.