Putting the Garden to Bed

Well, the huge oak tree has made it through to the Fall and we're hoping it makes it through to Spring when we'll have saved enough money to cut it down. So this will be the last Fall that Richard will have the MASSIVE amount of leaves to deal with. With all of the leaves off the tree we can see the nests better. Looks like we'll have one big family of squirrels needing to find a new home in the Spring...
So, we had a nice layer of chopped oak leaves to cover the garden for the winter.

We're experimenting with a compost heap as well. We cleared out a small area in the brush and Richard made a big pile of grass and chopped leaves, and I've been adding kitchen scraps. Today when he turned the pile he thought it was getting a little moldy, so we'll have to figure out how to fix that...
I'm also experimenting with burying kitchen compost into holes in the garden bed. Hmmm... We'll let you all know how that works out!

One of the biggest surprises in the garden this year has been the asparagus patch. The ferns are starting to turn yellow, so I'll probably be cutting them back in a few weeks. When I went up the hill to take a look I found that they had these pretty little berries on them.

Aren't they pretty? I think they look very festive. Hopefully that means we'll have a bumper crop in the Spring!

The next item on our "To Do" list will be to create another new little garden patch so we can plant blueberries in the Spring. Hopefully the warmer weather will hold out so I can get out there with some wet newspaper...