i was concerened...

...but now i am pretty much convinced that the cover fabric will be okay this winter...unseasonably violent weather found northwest indiana yesterday ( i shot some interesting video of the maple and locust trees in my yard arcing back and forth about half the distance of their height...a few branches down but they seem to be healthy trees )...i was a bit fearful that the exposed mulch cover on the jerusalem artichoke/garlic bed might fail in the wind and rain...the top photo shows that it held up well and the second tells me the strawberry mulch is unscathed as well...so my worries about the fabrics durability are somewhat assuaged...i have been using rather heavy landscaping fabric until now and being able to see the straw through the fabric was ( and is ) a bit unnerving...beyond that and the weather things are what they should be...the knockout roses have finally been done in by the seasonal change...they will be back next season...the north side yellow pea in the fourth photo has clearly been frost bitten, yet i found one still blooming ( or trying to )on the south side of the bed...survival may be a matter of inches ( or a bit better cover )at the moment but the seasonal change will do what it does to all annuals before much longer...the garden as an entity has a definite autumnal cast...this season is all but done ( it remains to be seen what among the winter wheat, winter rye, and hairy vetch finds dormancy...which is a good reason to continue winter visits to the garden ) while the next is already started...cyclical but the substantively the same the seasons move along like a dialectic...i can't help being fascinated...more form the microcosm as it comes up.