It's the end of the season for vegetable gardening and about time to button up the garden until spring. We still have some green tomatoes which we will pick, then wrap in newspapers to ripen. Broccoli and cabbage and lettuce will be good because they can stand the frost.

I wrote an article on End of Season Vegetable Gardening Tips for Life 123. I have no idea why it is formatted with capital letters starting each word...Not my formatting. Click here to read it. I hope it helps you put your garden to bed for the year.

Happy Fall Season

This fall centerpiece is made of a pumpkin from our garden and pumpkins-on-a-stick grown from seeds our daughter collected last year from an arrangement at her workplace. We don't know the official name of the small pumpkin-like fruit, so we call them pumpkins-on-a-stick

Tonight at 11:09 pm is the official time Fall arrives. Of course Mother Nature doesn't always go according to our calendar...yesterday was 81 degrees in Michigan...more summerlike than fall...and another 80 degree is forecast for tomorrow.

Fall brings mixed feelings to gardeners...a sense of loss for food production, but a sense of joy that the work and responsibility for tending a garden is coming to an end. If the harvest has been preserved through canning or freezing, then winter days offer the opportunity to continue enjoying the fruits of the labor.

Wishing you all happy Fall season!

Plant Rye in Your Garden

My DH planted rye last week in the garden. It will winter over and grow again in the spring. He will turn it under next spring to add nitrogen to the soil. Rye is such a fast grower. Plant it and it seems it pops up green in a couple of days. Try and plant it when you hear a shower is forecast so you won't have to water it in the ground.

A reliable weather man/woman is a gardener's best friend. Not only do they help you know when to water or not water, but also to alert you to when the first frost and killing frost will occur so that you can get your veggies in before losing them to the cold.

Rye in the foreground, broccoli on left and strawberry plants for next spring.

Rye. tomato plants, sunflowers weighed down with seeds

Pumpkins look lonesome in this corner of the garden.