Winding down

My little garden is starting to wind down. The lettuce has bolted and the remains are now in my compost. I threw in some more spinach and lettuce seeds in the hope of a fall harvest.

I was told by a fellow gardener that I had better get cracking and get my beds ready to plant my winter garlic. I actually have bought my garlic but there is no rest for me it seems. Apparently you are supposed to get it prepared a month ahead with composted manure. There isn't much left and I was told to use the old stuff, NOT the new stuff that they will be getting when it is gone. The pressure, I tell ya. Honestly I'm not going to worry about it too much. I might just shake it up a bit and put in some sea soil too.

I'm very pleased with the garden this year and the soil can't be that bad as you can see from my sunflower. I do wish the flower part was bigger for the birds. Maybe I had too much manure. I know it was my second batch of seeds that I think I bought at Home Depot so they probably weren't the freshest. Next year (here I go again) I will special order ones with big heads of seeds for the birds. If only I can get them to not eat them before they sprout.

The nights are getting cooler and I can tell that my cucumbers and eggplant are slowing down. I think next year I will start them in my mini greenhouse to give them a better start. Over the winter I am going to try and figure out a better structure for my tomatoes. They really are a bit of a pain but I do love them so will probably continue to grow them until I get frustrated. My eggplants are so cute. I don't know if I will get much out of them but I have to say they are the coolest thing I have ever grown. So smooth and perfect. This is the japanese eggplant which is smaller than the regular one. I chopped one of them up and pan fried it with some mushrooms and it was delicious.

My potatoes are almost all dug up and stored in the basement. Again, not sure if I will grow them again. We will see. The fresh new ones you buy in the spring seem sweeter. Will see how long these ones last. The next week will be spent burying all the old plant material, throwing in some more manure and digging it in for the winter. Hopefully that should do the trick.