November.....

The garden beds are finally put down for the winter. There are a few dinosaur kale plants we need to eat before the chickens find them and the sprouting broccoli, first crop of spring, is hidden under the remay. Today, between downpours, I cleared out the tomatoes, stacked the cages, and moved the big black tubs near the house for the winter. All of the finished vegetable plants have been chopped into the compost hoop under the laurels. Last weekend, I raided leaves from the street using the neighbor’s abandoned recycling cart to haul the wet piles into the back yard. The cats rolled in the street as I raked, assured that they were safe as long as I was around. I spread leaves six inches deep over all of the raised beds, burying weed seeds deep in the mulch. Over the winter, the chickens will root through the leaves, mixing in soil and poop, creating new earth. The coop has been covered in plastic sheeting to break the wet west wind, the cat carrier moved into the rabbit hutch and filled with straw for a winter bedroom for Lola, and the benches are all in the garage for the cats to climb on during the winter rains. Until the seed catalogs come out on New Year’s Day, the garden is resting.