Garden 2011 no 16; Closing down for winter.

Garden 2011 no 16

Closing down for winter

I was lucky last weekend; I had a completely free weekend, no arrangements, no commitments, no interruptions and mild dry weather. We are into November and the time has come to close the garden winter.

All of the fallen leaves are swept and composted and all of the garden waste that wouldn’t fit into the composter is happily rotting in a corner. The garden shed is tidy, the fruit canes are cut back and the last of the buddleia is dead headed and trimmed. While cleaning out some of the debris from the pond I cam e across two frogs which is wonderful, I was afraid the pond would never recover after the pollution in the summer and now, just a few months later, I have frogs back again.

I started my vegetable garden too late in the year to expect a high yield of any thing during this first year. I have had quite a few radishes, lots of lettuce, and one crop of carrots. The radishes finished a while ago but there were lettuce scattered around and my one and only carrot crop were still in the ground. I knew every thing had to come out. It’s November and even though the weather is  mild, I know I could wake up literally any day to a ground frost and the start of real winter weather.

I lifted enough lettuce to last me and my daughters for the coming week and then its back to shop bought ones. The carrots are small but sweet and tasty, I decided to lift them, prepare them, freeze them and save them for our family Christmas dinner. I thought that would be a nice way to use my first carrot crop.

I’ve also lifted all the geraniums. When I lived in the south I never lifted my geraniums and always at least some would survive. But I have learnt, geraniums never survive the winter here, they have to be lifted, so now I have a kitchen full of geranium plants.

I have dig over and enlarged the vegetable garden ready for next year; I’m even considering putting in some broad beans and garlic before the winter sets in.

So that’s more or less it for the year, oh except for the bird food, I forgot to buy any but its that time of year and I can’t forget to feed the birds.