Day 315
Though the garden provided us with amazing amounts of food and even greater amounts of work, all good things must come to an end. But before we could put the garden to bed, there were a few more garden tasks to complete.
First, we had to clear out the beds. While most of them were already emptied of usable plants, many of the tomato plants and lettuce stalks were pulled out and given to the chickens. A few beds needed more attention. The asparagus and strawberries plants were not pulled out. Rather, they were pruned and covered with straw to protect their root systems from freezing and giving them a head start for next year.
Similarly, we wanted to give the rest of the plants a good start for next year. This led to another task. With plenty of composted manure ready to spread, I added a healthy amount of manure to each bed. With winter on the horizon, there is plenty of time for this manure to break down and enrich the nutrient-depleted soil after a long and productive growing season.
Before I could do this to some of the beds, I needed to remove the tomato cages that were meant to support the plants but were instead enveloped by them. The tomato plants dwarfed many of these cages and in some cases, bent them into unusable pieces of twisted metal.
Even though the beds were cleared and prepped for next year, the work wasn’t done.
The tomato cages that survived the forest of tomato plants were organized and stacked together when possible before placing them in the barn’s loft. This led to a complete reorganization of some garden supplies that will hopefully make gardening that much easier next year.
But even if gardening is easier next year, it is sure to be different.
We will hopefully be adding an upgraded gate, potentially moving some beds around, and looking at changing the type, amount, and location of the things we grow.
Regardless of what changes we made, I am looking forward to making one specific and helpful change that should help our garden be a more comfortable place to work for years to come.
