We gave our garden just enough attention to keep it growing, and the garden gave to us abundantly throughout the season. Now, our garden is turning fall colors.
Despite our September and October snow, we haven’t had a hard frost yet, and we’re in the middle of one last 70-degree day, so we’ve left the remnants of our garden—mostly for the snails. I estimate we got 75% of the harvest, and the snails got the rest. I left the damaged tomatoes on the vine for them.
Next month will be my final garden post. By next month, I will have cut everything back before the snow stays on the ground. I love seeing the progress in the photos below. I feel so attached to my wild garden. I am so happy to see the purple, orange, and green leaf colors all pop against my grey house.
November Harvest
When we were afraid that we would have a hard frost a few weeks ago, we picked all of our green tomatoes. We made fried green tomatoes, green tomato salsa, green tomato pickle, and green tomato anything at all. (See our post on green tomatoes recipes.) Even after all of that cooking, we still had a lot of green tomatoes. Rather than freezing, we decided to let them ripen.
We lined boxes with newspaper then set out all of the green tomatoes so they had plenty of air circulation around them. It worked. Now, we shop for our post-season harvest in the basement.
Total Cost So Far
Total for November – $0
Total for October – $0
Total for September – $3.00 (stakes)
Total for August – $0 (nada!)
Total for July – $3.00 (supports)
Total for June – $16.50 (plants)
Total for May – $34.00 (manure, top soil, peat moss)
Total for April – $18.00 (hops)
Total cost for the year – $74.50
Total Time So Far
I spent no time on the garden this month other than to stand the pumpkin up from where it grew at the edge of our sidewalk so it was visible to neighbors. That’s my fall decorating done. It took all of two seconds.
Total time so far = 11 hours 30 minutes
Our goal has been to spend less than 30 minutes in the garden most months.Depending on your climate and your weather, you might want to spend your 30 minutes this month cutting back vines and sending all of that green into the compost so it can feed your garden next year. Since we are still having mild days, we will wait until later this month to cut back completely.
Our Wall of Green
Our blackberry leaves have turned purple and red. This is the only way to see the blackberries stand out against the raspberries and the grapes that have created our wall of green this season. Tomatoes are greying, though you can see the red of the tomatoes we left for the creatures. Only the kale still carries on growing green.
Progress in the Cultivated Raised Bed
