I put the vegetable garden "to bed" for the winter today. All the plants are out, but I still have to rake out the small debris, and I am actually going to plant a cover crop this time in an effort to complete the cycle of putting nutrients back into the soil that so richly rewarded us this year, despite the endlessly blazing hot summer and lack of rain. It took several hours, and I note that I am much slower, and tire more easily than (I remember) in times past. As I work I think, well, it's a good thing I gave over two of the beds to berries. As perennial shrubs, they require less intensive effort, and perhaps I should consider making more of the beds berries, or asparagus or some such. Maybe all but one? Two? It seems prudent. Finally exhausted, I'm done, surveying the bags of plant and weeds, knowing I need my husband to come with the cart to pick it all up because it's way too heavy to lug up the distance to the curb. In fact, I can't carry the trug full of ripe/unripe tomatoes peppers, etc. that consist of the end of season bounty. Yep, scaling down is the way to go. Absolutely.
The mail comes, and I trudge up to the mailbox, take it into the house, and discover that I have unconsciously stuffed the labels from the tomato plants in my pockets (so I don't forget which ones they were for next year), and in the pile of mail - a gardening catalog, and in it the seductive temptation of gardens yet to come....
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