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Nearing the End

October 4th, 2014

Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly gathering the last of the harvest for the season. Winter squash and pumpkins have been tucked away on a shelf in the office, green tomatoes are sitting on a table on the back porch. Giant zucchini are resting in a cool spot to be fed to the chickens when the snow flies. As the harvests grow smaller and smaller the compost pile grows larger and larger with the remnants of this year’s garden.
butternut harvest
tomatoes on the vine
The last of the tomatoes were picked yesterday, along with a few other edibles that lingered in the garden. Strawberries are being moved, fall lettuce is planted, winter hardy arugula is being sown. There’s definite comfort in the end of the season, there’s no hurry like there is in spring, chores can be done slowly and methodically instead of hurriedly. There’s a deep sense of order that comes from clearing the garden for the season, because there can only be rebirth after death.

How’s your garden season coming along? Is it winding down?

5 Comments to “Nearing the End”
  1. Tricia on October 4, 2014 at 7:09 am

    Do you cure your winter squash or are you able to store them long periods without doing so?

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  2. Nebraska Dave on October 4, 2014 at 8:25 am

    Susy, my gardens have been done for at least a month. They just naturally dried up and quit producing. I’ve been distracted from gardening with other people’s projects so maybe it was a good thing that they quit early. I volunteer to help other folks with projects from time to time. I took on resurfacing a set of steps for a single person with no money to fix them which has turned out to be a much bigger project than I first thought. It’s turning out great but my experience in this area is limited so it’s taking me much longer than what it would take a professional and well I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to working on projects. Some times I just have to declare a project done and move on or I’ll be tweaking it forever.

    We got our first solid 30s temperature with frost in some areas last night. The trees are in major leaf drop and the grass is definitely going dormant for the Winter and so am I. :-) I made a big pot of bean soup yesterday so fall is here and Winter is on the way. Even through Winter is 77 days away, I think it will make its presence known much sooner, how about you?

    Have a great harvest ending day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  3. Brenna on October 4, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    Since it snowed early this morning I need to get out and pick the last of the carrots and beets, clean up the pea beds, and pick the last of the camomile heads. Tomato plants have been moved to the garage to ripen and get a few more weeks of production. Our summer was so wet and cloudy this summer in AK that production was way lower than usual!

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  4. Laura on October 6, 2014 at 8:47 am

    Sadly I had to put the Veggie garden away a few weeks early :( The garden was a flop this year due to the weather. My herb garden is still going strong! Can’t wait for next years gardening season! :)

    Reply to Laura's comment

  5. Colleen on October 6, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    Yes, slowly but surely, we are winding down. Our summer here in the PNW, has been one of the best I can remember. We are still having warm days, but cooler nights. The tomatoes are hanging in there and I have been able to leave them on the vines to ripen. We have harvested all the squash and pulled all the vines. Our compost pile is huge! I agree, fall does feel less hectic than spring and I am happy to have a slower gardening season, however, we are trying some fall/winter gardening this year. Should be interesting.

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About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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