Gardening is coming to an end for the 2012 season. It is time to put the “farm” to sleep.
We continue to marvel at how things grew this year. How most things grew might be more accurate. Here’s a few lessons learned as the season draws to a close:
Little seedlings that look like 90 pound weaklings can grow into behemoths. Have faith. And a watering system. And add lots of mushroom compost.
Do some research about what plants might look like if you have never grown them before. In our case, it was parsnips. We have been lamenting that our parsnips never germinate. We plant, they never grow up. We buy news seeds. Nothing. Late this year we discovered we had been mistaking any little parsnips for weeds and had been regularly plucking them out of the ground. Darn things don’t look like carrot tops when they emerge.
Pay close attention to invasions of insects and other pests. And then try to figure out what to do about it before it’s too late.
Cleaning up the garden can be bittersweet. Good bye to the growing season, sigh. No sooner does that thought enter your mind than you start thinking about crop rotation and what you’ll plant next year.
One of the greatest joys of gardening is sharing the results with others. This year we actually had some produce to share and we did so with great joy. Do you have any gardening or horticulture highlights from 2013?
Barb's True Stories 
You had a great garden this year. Wonderful pictures. Our garden is all cleaned off and will have been spaded by the time we get home. Tanya will plant garlic then, not sure if any other winter planting. Lots more fall bulbs to put in her flower garden of course.
I really like to see and hear what’s up in your garden. Tanya has a green thumb, for sure. There was garlic in our garden when we took it over. It hasn’t amounted to much these first two years. We will go at it again next year and see how we do. We bought a goodly amount of hard neck garlic for home the past two years. It is grown in Quebec. Very good. Good to hear from you.
Plant your garlic in the fall.
Indeed. We need to get on that.