Winding Down the Garden

Winter finally decided to show up last week and we had a nice little blustery cold front come through that brought temps in the low 20s to my garden.  I think that it is safe to say that only the very hardiest of the plants survived, though the next few days will probably reveal the extent of the damage.  I don't think the peas will produce anything this season, so they will go to feed the garden soil and the chickens who think the stems and leaves are delectable.

The brussel sprouts look pretty tired, but I think I might have some harvestable sprouts under the cover of leaves.

The cabbages have taken some damage as well, but I think that I will have four or five nice heads out of this bed.  Not bad considering that I already got a harvest of onions out of this same bed earlier this year.

The rest of the garden is pretty much done for and I am gradually trying to prepare each bed for winter.  This also means that it was time to take down the greenhouse that I had over the peppers and tomatoes.  It did a fair job keeping the tomatoes going and I just harvested the last of them this week, the night before the hard freezes.

 I will save the pvc pipes and the plastic for hoop houses this spring.  I know that there are a few more parsnips hiding in some of these beds, so I will have to dig them out as I go along. I also dismantled the cucumber trellis so I can mulch in this bed for winter.  There is still a fair amount of work to be done this season and I am trying to make good use of the weekends with nice weather to get it done.  I don't know how long the warm spells will last, but I am taking the hint that winter is well on its way, and it's gonna get chilly.  I hope I can get it all done before the snow hits down in this valley.