Preparing the Garden for Another Winter

November 9.

On a brisk autumn day, I got my guys out working in the garden.  With all that was happening in our lives, we did everything late this year.   Better late than never, however, so we were out there working.  And taking pictures.  Here's what we did to get the garden ready for the upcoming winter.

First, Danny and Thomas dug up all the plants--tomatoes, herbs, squash--everything.

Joseph patiently removed the Velcro tape which had secured the tomato and pepper plants to their stakes.  I'll re-use this next year.

Here's the result:

Then, Danny and Thomas piled straw over the strawberry plants to protect them from winter's cold.  The straw bale is only about $10 from a local landscape supply store, and it more than covers the plants.  It isn't seedless, so I do have to deal with pulling new grass out as it goes to seed in the spring, but it's very manageable and not too much trouble, so I go ahead and use the straw.

To keep the straw from blowing away, we used plastic netting (sort of like bird netting), which we cut and draped over the bed from side to side.  We did this just enough to keep the straw down.  Some will blow away no matter what we do, so we don't worry about it.

Yeah, that's a good old-fashioned stapler!  Danny stapled the netting right into the wood, and we'll pull those out in the spring.

Above, Danny secured the last of the netting, then sat in the background while I photographed his finished product.  Nice job, Danny, and thank you!

Meanwhile, I put Joseph to work raking.  We have a great big rake, and he worked really hard for a long time.  The funny thing is, we have only two trees back here!  The leaves blow in from the church property behind us, and our neighbor's tree to the east.  So alas, we have to rake leaves.

Joseph raked up three huge piles of leaves!  This is the first year we've really had to rake a lot.  I guess the tree (below) in my special space has really grown!

After raking, the guys bagged everything up.  Here in our town, we're required to put yard waste in yard waste bags.  At least we don't have to purchase the "tax stickers" (as I call them) that some communities require their residents to place on the bags.

We worked and took pictures all afternoon!  What a great feeling to get the work done, just in time for colder weather and winter.  I leave you with a picture of my bench in the autumn setting sun.  It awaits my spring return!

Back to life,
Christine

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