The (Very Late) End of the Garden Notes

It's now mid-November, and I originally started this post at the beginning of October when I remembered I never wrote my garden notes for September. I'm trying to catch up with everything unfinished, so here it is:

By mid-September, we were mentally done with the garden. There was still okra and some tomatoes, but the blight finally got to my vines and everything started to look crispy. I figured the squirrels and birds can get what is left.

Originally I thought I would have planted some winter vegetables for the Fall like brussels sprouts and chard. I didn't realize that my little plot would be completely full, and nothing would be done early enough to plant for the Fall/Winter. Next year, I'm going to make sure there is some empty space for all those delicious green things that come up after it gets cold.

Our goal for next year is to till a much larger plot, and have more room and rows to reach our vegetables. Nothing was more frustrating that being unable to reach half of the stuff, because it was so dense and just plain inaccessible from the outside. I can't decide what I should do with the little plot we made this year - I'm thinking of either planting garlic or asparagus, or maybe rhubarb. I need to refer to some of books to see how asparagus and garlic do together, because maybe I'll just plant both. Though I might be too late for any of those now.

The other thing I am going to do soon is start covering the ground to make some more beds the easy way and plant bulbs. I'm not letting another Spring go by wishing for more flowers than the few tulips I get that grow inside a bush. My mother-in-law is gathering seeds from all her dead flowers right now, and she is saving some of everything for me! There is a wonderful book I discovered a few years ago called The Way We Garden Now by Katherine Whiteside. It is full of easy projects to improve your yard no matter if your yard is an acre (or more) of lawn, less than a quarter acre, a brick patio behind a condo, or a balcony in the city. The instructions are simple to follow and the whole book is filled with whimsical watercolors by Peter Gergely. If I even get to a handful of Katherine's projects in the coming year, my outside life will lovelier, yummier, and more colorful than this year.