No idle time in the fall.....

Most of the harvesting and canning is done now for 2009. Only a few hardy, frost resistant crops remain in the ground now. There are endless hours of hard work to face at the end of the season here in Maine. First of all I must face the onslaught of falling leaves that begins in mid-October and can last until December! I count nearly 25 trees on on near my property that will all drop their leaves over these many weeks. I must gather them all. I have an electric leaf blower with a very long extension cord. Piles are made all over the place and then dragged via a blue tarp to the driveway to be mulched into small pieces with my trusty Toro mulching mower. Thanks to a snow shovel and deep wheel barrel the remaining mulch is carted to the garden beds, flower beds and mulch piles near the compost bins. All of the leaves will find there way back into the soil around here over time. At least the lawn mowing is over for 2009!

A local dairy farmer has now delivered two truck loads of cow manure to my Field Garden. The picture below shows one pile. It should take me weeks of labor but the plan is to spread this over the recently plowed garden beds for the "nourishment" of the soil over the winter. My back hurt after the first five wheel barrel loads! The farmer also sold me some hay to cover my strawberries and asparagus beds for the winter.

One other big task is almost completed though. The wood piles have been moved close to the house for easier access when the snow comes and deepens. My three cords of wood are ready for the cold, long winter. Actually I have used my wood stove steadily for the last few weeks as October has had below normal temperatures almost every day. The stove work well and the oil furnace has yet to be turned on.

The remaining picture shows the dahlia tubers now all dug, wash off and soon to be in basement storage. Both dahlias and gladiolas are flowers than can't survive the winter here if their tubers are left in the ground.

Hopefully the first big snowstorm won't arrive until all these tasks are completed. Then it will be time to relax and curl up by the wood stove and start thinking about next year's gardening plans.