My garden was still going fairly well with tomatoes, eggplant, jalapenos (finally! they started slow) & Hungarian Wax Peppers. Last night the forecast was for a freeze (20's). In looking at my options last week, the only day of good weather was Monday with the rest of the week rain/50's. Monday I spent ALL day in the garden - took down the fences, picked everything, pulled out all the plants, weeded the raised beds, & distributed the decomposing straw bales from the straw bale garden among the raised beds. The only steps left are to mix in the compost & cover the beds so I don't get weeds by next spring. It was a long, exhausting day, but one that was highly satisfying.
Now, the issue is doing something productive with what I picked. This morning, the jalapenos will be made into Sweet Jalapeno Relish & canned. The green tomatoes are gradually ripening so we can keep up with eating those. The 24 eggplants are a different story - I have a bunch of recipes to try, but not sure I can use them all up. They'll keep a while so maybe I can get through most of them.
Here's a picture of what came out of the garden Monday and my new "best friend" for helping with the garden - it's a Gorilla Cart. Holds 1,200 lbs (that's a LOT of tomatoes - ha ha), it dumps & the handle can be easily modified so the cart can be pulled behind the lawn tractor. So far, I'm really loving it.
BTW, it was 26 degrees around 8 this morning - I'm sure the overnight low was colder. Last night, the wind was really blowing - the branches moving were making the motion lights come on. I just happened to look out at one point & what did I see scurrying across the front sidewalk? FOUR raccoons ..... I foresee 'trouble' in the future!
I like the cart. Several years ago, I bought a sort of wagon on sale for half price. It is metal, but not solid. Has hinges on all sides so that the sides can be let down emptied by just brushing it all off.
I almost never get to use it. Hubby loads it up all the time, but then leaves it till he needs it, so I usually just wind up using something else - like a 5 gallon bucket or a wheelbarrow.
Wish I had bought 2.