Leaves and Leftovers

This weekend was clean-up day for the garden.  Plants killed by frost were ripped out and added to the compost.  Tomato stakes were pulled and put away for the winter.

After all the removal, we still have a lot of edibles available.  The list includes green onions, beets, red leaf lettuce, swiss chard, celeriac, arugula, collards, New Zealand spinach, kohl rabi, mustard greens, and radishes.  These garden leftovers should make some tasty stir-fry and salads over the next few weeks.

Everything left has survived a couple hard frosts.  These guys are tough and hardy.  Once the garden inventory was complete, it was time to tackle leaves.  Everyone helped, and placed the leaf harvest in the garden.

I spread the leaves in the troughs between the seedbeds, and stepped on them to compact them in and keep them from blowing around too much.  My hope is that they will decompose some over the winter, turning into leaf mold that I can till into the soil.  This was the first raking.  There will be more leaves.