Fall cleanup

I have tried to post a number of times in the last month, but I've been so sad about my dead yard that I just didn't have the heart. The last several weeks it has been so unseasonably warm that I've been able to get out in the yard again and finish up the fall tasks that got caught in the snow storm.  It's hard to believe there is no snow and it's been so warm, but my rain barrels have thawed and I'm a happy girl.

This weekend Mike drained the rain barrels, I raked the last of the leaves over my bulbs, and we dug the beets and half of the carrots. We cooked the last of our ripening tomatoes into a delicious sauce and ate fresh carrots.  Greta and I cleaned the green house and I put the gladiola bulbs in there to dry.  Unfortunately the snow storm killed off my greenhouse beans and spinach, plus the last of the chard, so Greta and I mostly moved and dumped pots.

All in all, it has been a bad year for gardening. I have less than half of my tomato jars filled and have already eaten all my pumpkins. My beets are tiny and I have only a few spaghetti squash left. However, now that the yard is clean and all the lawn furniture is stored for the winter, I find myself yearning for the next gardening season.