Finished for the year. Or so I thought…
We had our first deep freeze this last week, so it was time to finish the garden for the year. I like to let the asparagus freeze before cutting it down at ground level. Then, it needs a light covering of straw.
I covered the strawberries with straw and that is that. Nothing HAS to be done until the weather starts to turn in the spring…but I have a few winter projects planned to keep me busy and out of Sonia’s hair.
I am going to install a sprinkler on top of a seven foot pole to keep from having to move it when not in use. I bought an adjustable sprinkler to ‘fit’ to my garden size. It will be above the plants and should allow me to water the entire garden at once. The sprinkler will have a mechanical timer on the spigot. I plan on turning it on at or near sun up and have no worries about forgetting to turn it off. I am notorious about forgetting and have made a muddy mess more than once!
My last blog I mentioned that I was going to taste my rhubarb wine. Well, I am sorry to say that it went down the drain. It was not good at all. I will not give up and will try more next spring. On a better note, my dad is ‘keeping his toes warm’ with the batch of blackberry that I bottled this fall.
Now that the garden is put to bed for the winter, I can sit back, sip a glass of wine, watch the snow fly and dream of the all the wonderful things the garden will produce next summer. Merry Christmas everyone!
My garden today 
Jim, I was out in one of my flower gardens today as well before the severe cold and wind they are predicting for tomorrow. My little project for today was to gather some of the thousands of seeds on my Sweet Autumn Clematis that grows on my chain link fence. I’m hoping to start some seeds inside early Spring, and be able to plant some along a few other areas of the ugly fence. Haven’t done this before, but won’t hurt to try. I love the many looks of Sweet Autumn Clematis, from the buds to the flowers, to the spidery like pods that turn red and then the little wispy cotton like fluff on the seeds. Interesting plant.