The Garden Is Just about Through

It's the end of harvest season, nearly, around here. I'm grateful it's winding down, actually. We had frost all over our backyard last Saturday, enough to kill back one butternut squash vine entirely, and really sting my other two. I decided that was also the death knell for the tomatoes -- what's hanging on them is just not ripening, and I know I won't check the green tomatoes frequently enough through the winter to justify the work of trying to save them. Liam yanked them out for me. I hope next year he remembers to yank them out by the roots and not by the wire cages holding them up!

The stuff that did the best? Onions, honeycrisp apples (ohhhhhh! Divine!), and yellow zucchini. I think the celery is going to do pretty well -- trying to hang on with it just a little longer, and the tomatoes did okay. The Reliance peach tree did fabulously, breaking or cracking several limbs in its exuberance. The O'Henry tree is peaching its little heart out too. I've lost one major limb on it. The disappointments were the broccoli (I'm done. I give up) and the cucumbers. How does one fail at cucumbers? Or green zucchini? I barely kept that thing alive.

I have been worried about my bees. I took the honey from them and didn't get very much more than last year. It seemed like there was even a little less than what I had seen in the hive when I'd check in early July. There was so much bee activity around the hive the day I took it too that I thought the hive was getting robbed. Saturday I decided to actually look inside because there just didn't seem to be very much activity and I was afraid the hive was lost. A quick morning glance inside (no protective gear on because I couldn't see much activity at all) showed me a couple of bees lethargically moving around. When I suited up later, though, and opened things down into the nest I discovered capped brood and larvae, so I think the girls are going to be okay. I didn't see much in the way of food, though, so I am planning on feeding them until it snows.

As I think about my garden for next year, I'm thinking I will rip out most of the raspberries because they just have not done well for several years now. The raspberries and strawberries have gotten so overgrown with field bindweed and grasses that I think it's time to start over. I just need to find someplace else that will do while I rejuvenate this spot. I may not even do raspberries again. I think I may just do strawberries.