Belated Posting - Harvests, Fall Clean-Up, Preparations for Spring, a Fall Panorama

It's been a few weeks since I've updated the blog.  In that time, there's been a number of harvests done and the plot has been winterized.  I also had a pretty nasty cold for 2 weeks so that really didn't help; I simply didn't feel like doing anything but sleep.  Anyway, here's one big post to cover a few harvests

October 18

Harvest totals:

• 2 lb 6.1 oz tomatoes
• 1.0 oz beans
• 1.1 oz cayenne peppers
• 0.4 oz carrots
• 0.6 oz radishes
• 0.8 oz snow peas
• 10.2 oz loose leaf lettuce

October 20

Made it to the plot for a few hours along with The Boy.  We emptied out boxes that contained the tomatoes, basil, and bell pepper plants.  Just for an experiment I left the cayenne pepper plants in to see if they'd do any better than bell peppers against a frost.  (They didn't.)  We also made a little friend in a tiny garden toad.  He was cute, but not all that chatty.

I also removed two of the last three green bean trellises.  The only two left are the scarlet runner beans on the arbor and the green beans adjacent to the watermelon trellis.

The total for the final summer harvest:

• 14.2 oz bell peppers
• 2 lb 2.4 oz tomatoes
• 5.4 oz carrots
• 1 green bean

November 2

I took a half day at work since it was a mild day and I'd been unable to get out to the plot due to having been under the weather.  The rest of the cleanup was finished:

• Cayenne peppers, the 2nd misc flower box with Audrey 3, and borage box were cleaned out
• Everything in the watermelon trellis box was cleaned out
• The last green bean trellis was broken down and everything in the box was cleaned out
• The box adjacent to the compost bin with volunteer tomatoes was mostly emptied out
• The string on the arbor and scarlet runner beans were removed
• I added compost from the compost bin to some of the boxes were the soil levels were appearing decreased

All that is left growing over the winter (or late into Fall) are the Egyptian Walking Onions, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts.

I also planted garlic and some more shallots.  Once all that was done, I fertilized everything, and broadcast some rye seed on top of the boxes that are unpopulated.  For the ones that have things still in residence, I'll be adding some mulched leaves to reintroduce nutrients to the soil.

This has been a very fruitful year at the plot for a change.  Frankly, this is our first good year.  There's still a lot of room for improvement, but it's been very enjoyable.  I look forward to planning our crops for next year.