around back ( with minimal narrative )

wild strawberries in bloom in the south bed...

ramps continue to pop up...

winter rye and winter wheat...

third season asparagus...

second season asparagus...

maintenance

it was about sixty-four degrees in my back yard when i got home from the garden this ( late ) morning and i have to think the temperature there is nearly the same...

someone or something has been at these tomato plants and so, while some of the unharvested tomatoes have remained in the bed to reseed it come spring...

others have not and will simply be mowed over in 2018...

my main reason for the visit was to check up on the asparagus mulch..i don't want straw all over the garden...it is intact...which is what i expected...this system has worked well for years and so disruption seems unlikely...

the garden isn't exactly barren today..among other things i have seen a small stand of alfalfa hanging tough in early december...

one bed has at least a half dozen volunteer garlic plants...

and something that looks an awfully lot like kale is carrying on like it's still september...we'll see what winter brings...if and when it arrives.

buttoned up

the garlic need to be mulched so i met parker! at the garden this morning to finish the official 2015 season...we used regular landscaping fabric and straw on the smaller garlic bed...spreading about six inches of straw on the plants and anchoring the fabric with landscaping pins as we went...this one took around twenty minutes of work...the asparagus was clearly done for the season so its turn was next...after we cut back the stems we marked the location of each plant with a marker...we will need to know next spring because for all its cold weather resistance asparagus is not a very strong plant so we will have to dig back the soil over the crowns until the first spears appear..then we will back fill the holes with compost to feed the plants which are heavy feeders...after we marked the plants we used the same mulching technique and materials as we did on the smaller garlic bed to mulch the plants for winter...the larger garlic bed was too wide to use the landscaping fabric on ( the rolls are only thirty-six inches wide and the bed is forty-eight ) so we used some row cover fabric instead...we spread the straw over the bed and once again fastened it down with landscaping pins...both varieties of fabric are strong...i have used them on the pgp and the community garden for all the years of my involvement without a failure...however as an added precaution we went back and added a second layer of fabric to each bed as insurance...parker! did her best american gothic pose ( while singing the "green acres" theme ) and then she snapped a rare photo of the gardener in the garden...i am usually alone out there...it was nice to have her company and help so thanks parker! the garden is buttoned up for winter...someone has been pulling the plants that have died back out of the beds..which is okay...but whomever also left a bunch of jerusalem artichokes they had dug up laying on top of my bed...displeased is a tactful way to phrase my reaction...the tubers dehydrate rapidly in the air and some of those tubers ( which i packed up and took ) will have to be discarded...don't dabble in what you don't understand...i will be checking on the mulch to make sure it holds all winter and the garlic will be opened sometime in march...expect sporadic reports until then...the indoor season takes center stage.