Garden

Well, it's the middle of August, and I'm getting the garden ready for winter. My tomatoes are still growing, and there are tons of flowers on the bush....But to tell you the truth..... If I eat one more tomato I'm gonna barf!!!!!!!

Love fresh tomatoes, but by this time I've eaten about 200 or them (exaggerating of course) and I'm sick of them.

So It's time to pull the plants out, and get the soil in the pot ready for next year. That means I'll remove the tomato plants, and dig the soil in and around to loosen it up. I'll add some mulch and let it sit for the winter. The same goes with the eggplant. Loved them! Now I'm sick of them.

I know, I can make tomato sauce, and rattatoie with the egg plants and freeze them for winter use..... I've done that a million times before.... But I prefer to eat them fresh.

The artichokes are growing again, and I'll leave them alone, since they like cooler weather, I may get a few more before the season is over. I'll check my house plants that are outside, and bring them in for the fall.

The blueberry's will stay in the pots all winter, though I may wrap the smaller pot of blueberry's in newspaper to keep it warm for the winter, the larger pot won't need it.

I'll bring the pot of strawberry's in and put it by the sunny kitchen sink, and try to get a few more berry's out of it before it dies down. Strawberry's don't do well in the house.

I'll pick all the flowers on the chrysanthemums, and dry them, to use in the house for pest control all winter.

Unfortunately my old friend Mary had TONS OF FLEA'S in her house, and she didn't even bother to kill them, so occasionally I find a flea or two in my house from her, and the chrysanthemums kill them off fast!

Now that the huge picnic table is gone to my daughters, I'm going to move some of the larger pots around to make more room on the patio, so that next year I can get one of those covered swings to sit and read on during next summer.

I do need some new pots. Two nice big ones for in front of the house. On either side of the stairs, because I put fake Christmas tree's in them for the holidays. (Yes, even though I'm a witch I celebrate Christmas.... Our holiday... Yule... Is on the 21st of December, so I do both at once!!!) All lighted up, they look so pretty, and I'm using the old containers for planting, so I need some new ones.

Then I'll sweep the patio, cut my rosemary and lavender down, and bundle them up with string, and hang them in the kitchen to dry. When they are dry, I'll put the herbs in containers to use all winter. The rosemary in the kitchen and bath, and the lavender in the bath. Both plants will re-grow in the spring if I don't cut too much off. But I've been doing that for years so I know just how much to cut without killing the plant.

When all that's done, all I have left is to remove the watering hose later in October, and cover the outside spigot with a freeze proof cover. Most out side spigots are freeze proof, but I don't like to take any chances with a really cold winter, they could bust and then I'd have to call someone to replace it, and why spend the money? The hose I'll store in the shed, and take it out to use next winter.

The chairs I leave out all winter, they are iron, and weather really well, not a trace of rust in like 10 years or more, and the two tables between them remain out all winter also, the cold doesn't seem to affect the glass on the tables at all! And I can still sit out there when the weather is warm, and that happens sometimes in the winter. Indian summer they call it.

I do need to put some more bulbs in the front garden, and move the ones I have around a bit..... Now that the bamboo has grown HUGE, I need to move some of the lily's and such or you'll never see them in the spring. Plus, I have to take down my arch around the Buddha. It's gotten old, and sort of leans to the side. One good winter storm and it will fall apart. Next year I'll get a nice heavy wooden arch, and that will last for years!