On the 21st of November, I pulled the last of the tomato plants and brought about a bushel of green tomatoes into the garage to keep them from freezing. I am glad to have the tomato plants gone since I was getting a little tired of covering and uncovering them. We are still covering the romaine lettuce on those nights when a freeze is forecast. The lettuce plants are lush, and beautiful -- the very picture of health. I pulled all the turnips and put the bottoms in the fridge. Linda will cook them together with collard greens. I love this combo. The collard plants are doing well and will continue to do so until it gets really cold. A good frost actually improves collards by making them taste sweeter.
I still need to cut down the asparagus stalks for the winter, but that would have to wait until after we get back from a short trip to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. My siblings always get together on Thanksgiving Day for a big meal of turkey, corn bread dressing, dumplings and other good food. There will be turnip greens and corn bread, purple hull peas, lima beans and corn casserole. There could very well be squirrel, venison, fish or shrimp gumbo. Linda is making an apple cobbler to take along.
I will keep things simple -- I am only taking my appetite. Oh yeah, I'm also taking a couple of large ice chests because my youngest brother David texted me that he had a bunch of catfish he wanted to give me.
As I harvest the last crop from each raised bed, I sow annual rye as a cover crop. This helps protect the soil and, in the spring, I will work the rye plants into the soil. This will give the new spring plants a shot of nitrogen just when they need it. The beds look like little green lawns with the new rye growing in them. If a bed needs soil added to it, I do this before I plant the rye. I get this soil from a large compost pile sitting right next to the garden. The front end loader on my tractor makes short work of the chore.
The mild fall weather has been good for gardening this year. I certainly never expected to have tomato plants doing so well until almost Thanksgiving. Now we have tomatoes ripening on a regular basis, and this could go on for a few weeks yet. I can handle that.
So all active garden work has come to a halt until next spring. What can an avid gardener do to bide his or her time until then? Well, there are always seed catalogs to order and receive in the mail and peruse over and over. Then, at the appointed time, seeds can be started indoors and, before you know it, the time for planting and transplanting has come.
Until then I will be working in my hobby shop. Right now, I am making each of my five children a gift for Christmas. This project will occupy my time for several weeks since each handmade gift seems to be sufficiently time-consuming. But who keeps track of such things? I am happy to be working in my shop.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 12/02/2015