Time to start thinking about the winter garden

The summer growing season is beginning to wrap up here and I am starting to prep the gardens for winter growing. I love gardening, but each fall I look forward to clearing the beds, putting some to rest for the season and setting up others to grow greens throughout the winter.

The zinnias are starting to look a little weathered, but I am waiting for the heads to dry so I can save the seeds for next year.

 Sunflowers on the side porch are still blooming like crazy and the finches are enjoying them in the late afternoon. Hopefully they will leave some seeds for me!

I let a bunch of lettuce go to seed so I can save the seeds for next years garden. I harvested that last night and cleared out the bed. The tomatillos are loaded and I am still waiting for them to drop off the plant.

The Thai basil and sweet basil are still growing strong. Soon the seed pods will start to turn brown and I can harvest the seeds. The basil leaves will go into the dehydrator to be preserved for winters use.

It has been extremely difficult this year to manage both our home garden and the school garden, so I have decided to plant only greens, lettuce, flowers and herbs (both culinary & medicinal) in our home garden, with just a couple tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in containers on the deck. Hopefully by not planting as much at home it will make it easier to manage both gardens.

  I will also  be planting a large raspberry and blueberry patch where the back gardens are now and adding another greenhouse so I have enough space to grow seedlings to sell.

 
Soon it will be cold and snowy, so now is the perfect time to build a cold-frame or two to protect your plants through the winter.

 
My plans are still available for anyone interested in building one for themselves. They are inexpensive to build and work really well for growing through the winter and starting plants early in the spring.

~Rob~