Jobs in the fall for a gardener

Saturday was the perfect day for fall garden tasks. The main purpose was to harvest as much as possible; bring some plants inside; clean up; and plan and plant for next year.

My first goal was to pull up the last of the beets. Under them, I found adorable mushrooms and lots of chamomile seedlings.

Next up: spigariello. We continued to harvest the brassica with hardy greens plant by plant. This would be a good candidate for soup since it holds up like kale, but I like it best steamed with some garlic and eaten over brown rice with an egg on top.

The garden this year has been a sanctuary for ladybugs. Just-emerged ones are all over, so I worked around them. They were at home everywhere: on the kale, beets, cilantro (especially). On Saturday, I saw several emerging from pupal cases attached to the sides of the raised beds and also attached to poppy seedpods. This growing season, I've observed them feasting and mating. I've seen the larvae all over too, tiny monsters.

On Saturday, we also assessed our shallot supply. We dug up the rest of them a few weeks ago. This was on a day where there was respite from heavy, constant rains. The bulbs were pretty muddy. After they dried out a bit, we brushed the dirt off with vegetable brushes, clipped the stalks and stored them in onion bags. They'll last for awhile. 

Work (good work) continues inside: tending the plants I ripped out of the ground to bring inside (oregano, mint, stevia and others) and shaking seeds out of seedpods for safekeeping. Also, there's a whole bunch of green tomatoes I'm counting on to ripen in a box — they must be checked everyday.