Garden Takedown 2010

Almost ready for winter - oregano bush and carrots in the foreground.

 With first frost several Sunday's ago (temps dipped down to 28*) it’s time to start wrapping up the garden. Since day time temps have been in the high 60's, we’ve got a good start this year – corn has been done for over a month, hot peppers longs since picked and pulled, dried beans came out a couple weeks ago, winter squash came out two weeks ago, and zucchini and tomatoes this past weekend. We bought a small tiller last year and that is making a big difference – both in speed of fall bed prep and saving my back.

We still have a fair number of fall crops in, one of the blessings of living in a northern climate (zone 3-4). Carrots, parsnips, onions, cabbage, Swiss chard, and kale all do well into mid to late October depending on the year. In fact, we can over winter our parsnips right in the ground and enjoy them come spring.



Rainbow Swiss Chard, Kale, and Cabbage



Fall garden prep goes a bit beyond just picking – there’s the processing part too. Even the winter squash needs to sit outside to cure a bit before we can bring it in and store it in the basement. I love growing dried beans; so very versatile with good shelf life, but it takes time to shuck the little buggers. The husband and I took advantage of a beautiful fall day, sat on the porch in the sun while doggies ran around and shelled two paper grocery bags of Northern Beans. We would have had more but some late fall rains drowned out part of the bed. Still, final weight was just over 4lbs. Not bad!

We have about 10 winter squash of various sizes. Not a record, but not the worst either (that was last year with one small squash). 

I've already mentioned we've canned zucchini relish and hot peppers.  Next up will be apples.  They are already indicating they are not going to store well this year so I need to start drying some, make pies out of others, and perhaps can or freeze some more applesauce.  We have several bags of frozen cherries and raspberries to make into some fall cobblers.  Yum! 

Summers last hurrah - the clematis is still blooming!