The end of the growing season

Yes, it's the end of the season here. I've had several light frosts and have pulled everything from the vegetable garden except for one lone cauliflower and whatever is left of the carrots...which is bound to be very few since they were snacked on all summer long, lol

The greenhouse needs to be stripped, and this is going to be a large project indeed. I have numerous pots in there, and most of them still carry their fruits-tomatoes, peppers, corn and a few miscellaneous odds and ends. Nothing in there was harmed by those frosts, including my huge (and yet to be repotted) house plant, thank heavens. But, stripping and then emptying those pots is going to quite a lot of work. The tops will need to be put on the compost area, and the contents of the pots into my beginnings of another vegetable bed. Afterwards, I will top dress the area with the humified compost too. And, I need to pull the black plastic mulch off the garden proper as well-it will need to be hosed off, dried, and then put away until next year.

This weekend I will also tear into my tiny pumpkin patch, and see what is buried in the leaves there. I am pretty sure they could have used an extra three weeks for growth but I will be happy with whatever I find. I also have several plants still in pots that I will need to bury in order to winter over safely. Hopefully I will have plenty of leaves stockpiled for mulching as well.

The challenging part will be finding space for the produce that remains. I am basically jam packed in both freezers, and won't really have extra space in there until the salmon is processed-which should be sometime over the next two weeks or so. The tomatoes I will box and ripen off over the coming week or so, and hopefully by that time I will have a little space to freeze them.

This end of the season ritual is always very bittersweet for me. I know that snow and cold are not that far away, and I will be revisiting my memory frequently for the images I hold of that greenhouse......full of promising, growing plants.