Day 278

With the garden’s production nearing an end, we know that we will be cleaning up the beds and starting the preparation for next year. We still regularly check for fruits and veggies. The tomatoes are still ripening, albeit much slower than before. I think we finally are done with zucchini and cucumbers. The peppers have gotten significantly smaller but they are still coming. The strawberries are done producing but have developed and expanded wonderfully, much to the delight of our son who was guilty of prematurely picking a large number of berries. The lettuce went to seed a while back. The kale and broccoli battled insect issues all season long, but we were still able to harvest plenty. Another pleasant surprise is our pumpkins. I don't remember even planting any but we have a number of them proving I did at some point. Overall, we are very happy with what the garden evolved into this year. That being said, we do have a number of ideas about changing it up for next year. Some plants might be added. Some removed. Some will also be moved. 

But that’s all for next year. We still have work to do this year.

We’ll be adding chicken poop compost to the beds to enrich the soil over winter.

We’ll be clearing out the raised beds and placing the plants in the chicken yard for our girls to peck away at whenever they feel the need.

And all the while, we'll be searching for critters. In our harvesting, we find plenty of worms, slugs, and other friends. We thrill the chickens by introducing them to our findings. They don't last long. We also have found some clever toads. We consider them clever because it seems apparent they are living in the thick vegetation, especially where we have tons and tons of tomatoes. We affectionately call our captures tomato-toads. It is pretty fun to see how finding a toad in a garden bed can motivate children to help with weeding and harvesting fruits and vegetables. The kids ask to go find tomato-toads just about every evening. They are sure to demand a photo just about every time their hunt is successful.