The final harvest ...

Thanksgiving marks the time when the cold seeps in and life in the vegetable garden comes to a close. The fruit trees and perennial flower beds have moved their energy from leaf to root for the winter, while the annuals are finishing up the season with their last flowers and fruits. The summer birds have gone south while the hawks, red-winged blackbirds, juncos, doves, quails, goldfinch and woodpeckers are busy at the feeding station. We still have a few hummers too. They'll be with us through the winter months and we'll continue to fill feeders and throw out seed. We provide extra goodies on the snow-days when the ground gets covered in white.We picked the last of the basil and made our final batch of pesto. That has been a yummy addition to our summer diet! The chard is beautiful this time of year and we'll continue to harvest until it gets really cold. It then slows it's growth until the first warm days of spring and we'll begin to harvest again. The garlic was planted under a hoop-house in early October. They'll grow slowly through the winter, coming alive in the spring for a May harvest. We picked all the tomatoes and tomatillos we could before the hard freeze. Now every window is covered with ripening tomatoes! We're so blessed to have such a spectacular bounty this year. The last harvest of the season comes soon when we pick the beans. Huge bean pods are now drying on the vine and what was once a "wall of flowers" are now pods full of brightly colored beans! We'll be shucking them by the fire all winter long. Steve and I have much to be thankful for. We have windowsills full of fruit, two freezers full of garden bounty, a jar of fresh pesto in the fridge,fresh chard in the garden and a colorful bean harvest to come. Nature has been good to us. Life in the garden is good...