Putting the garden to bed....

The last few days have been full of time outside in the gorgeous fall weather....planting garlic, pulling up spent veggie plants, bedding down winter crops with mulch, and bringing in everything that's tender. The last of the dill, cut at 11:00 last night after a soak in the woodfired hot tub with Bud and Melissa, is packed into jars with red wine vinegar for a summery taste when we need it in the cold months. Fall-planted chard and mustard and fava beans are still looking plucky and determined, but the 28 degree first-hard-frost that hit as expected last night blitzed everything else.

Mexican sunflower plants that just days ago were regal are looking like drunken and hungover revelers returning from carnivale. (Above...the Queens of the Ball before the hard night....)

But life goes on: the garlic we planted a few weeks ago is already sprouted.....wooohoo! It's comforting to see those new green shoots butting up through the straw mulch even in the face of the harsh cold of the first frost.