Fall Cleanup in the Garden

To say that my garden got away from me this summer is an understatement. It started out so wonderfully this spring – a beautiful day, my husband, daughter, son-in-law and the “three-under-three” grandboys all out in the garden happily planting together….. Oh, my, I had high expectations for that garden. We did harvest some delicious produce; but as the summer passed, I found less and less time to keep up with the garden. So today, (later than I’d normally be doing this) with no wind, sunny skies and 71° F, I found myself with time to spare and decided this was the day to do my fall cleanup in the garden.

YIKES, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to pull out the stakes, tomato cages, vines and debris.
We have had a lot of rain this growing season and things were still pretty green. (In fact, I found some ripe strawberries on my “ever-bearing” variety. That was a fun treat in the middle of my garden!)
Because of this, everything was still fairly rooted into the soil. Lucky for me, our youngest daughter and her husband are visiting with their baby, and they helped me with the fall cleanup.
We persevered pulling out weeds and vines through the leaves that had already fallen on the garden. We piled all the trash in a loader bucket and I decided to keep the leaves as a mulch over winter.
Next spring, we’ll do our tillage. Read our blog, Putting the Garden to Bed, for more detailed information on fall cleanup in the garden.