closed for the season

i tore down the garden last weekend. we want to have one again next year, but with slightly different contents. i picked every fruit or vegetable i could find so that it wouldn't seed itself over the winter, but i left all the greens laying in the garden area to mulch and fertilize. i also left all the sycamore leaves that fell into the garden. that should make a nice blanket to insulate all that nutrient-rich soil.

i was surprised at just how much i was still able to harvest. i finally pulled the beets. i thought i could do something with them even though they were pretty small, but they were also very dry and cracked (and i'm too lazy) so i didn't.

the carrots never did amount to anything. as i was clearing, i could see some nubbins that were about the size of bug's fingers. mostly the greens pulled off leaving the carrots in the dirt. we'll see what happens with that. aren't the seeds of a carrot in the greens?

i was completely blown away by the number of tomatos still clinging to life on those monstrous plants. i especially wanted to get rid of those so that the garden isn't one giant tomato patch next year. the cherry tomatos from the small planter the year before ended up all along the fence line this year, thanks to hapless seed distribution. some of them just rotted and fell, others were helped along by the local vermin.

i feel very sad about this baby eggplant that will probably never get a chance to fulfill its destiny, namely, filling my tummy. there are two of these right now, but i don't think they will survive. i had another one earlier in the season but it only got to tennis ball size before a critter took a big hunk out of it.

kisu took this wonderful bounty and made pasta sauce from scratch in the crockpot, with some spicy italian sausage. it was heavenly! it melted in our mouths. pooka even ate two pieces of sausage before she realized it was spicy.

witness the garden's last hurrahs:

oh, and what's up with these squatters? i didn't plant these. i wonder if they're edible varieties?