Garden Clean-up

I started to clean up the city garden today.  We have a large house on a relatively small lot; less than a quarter acre.  Although our garden is small, it provides our family with quite a lot of produce.


Today I pulled the winter squash vines, the bean bushes, the cherry tomato plant, and the eggplants.  Into the compost pile they went (except for the tomato plants), but not without first giving of their bounty.  I left some of the tomato plants in the garden.  They are almost ripe and if we have another week without a freeze I should be able to harvest them too.

There are a few flowers still blooming; my pink rose varieties in particular, but most are setting hips.

The neighborhood squirrel is starting to store his walnuts in each of our fence lattices.  He does this every year; just lines them up inside the fence for winter; much like I store the produce from the garden in my pantry.

Our 29 resident quail are still here. They live in the raspberry patch.  Erin and I thinned the raspberries today so we'll see how long they stay.
I complain about the holes that they make with their wings in the soil around my plants, but I must say that they keep the bug population down.  I haven't seen a snail or slug for a few years now.

We should be good for squash storage, don't you think?  There are Delicata, Sweet Meat, Jarrahdale, Cinderella, Butternut, Golden Nugget, Buckskin, and a round yellow pumpkin that I don't remember the name of.  And my lovely husband brought me back a few beautiful red maple branches from his morning hike.  He knows how much I love the fall leaves.   

Here's what my kitchen counters look like this afternoon.  They are covered with what I picked last saturday and today.  I have baby striped eggplants, tomatillos, beans (green and purple), a 2 lonely cucumbers, and tomatoes galore.  I'd best quit blogging and get busy.

This is linked to Fresh and Clean Friday, and Friday Potluck.