Prairie Path Garden Plot #204

{the end}


With temperatures now dropping below 50, I'm sure a hard frost is just around the corner.  But for plot #204, the season has already come to an end.  Living in Chicago and keeping a little garden plot 25 minutes away just doesn't work out very well.  This weekend, we will likely be pulling up all of our lovely plants and putting the bed to rest before the snow.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago.  I stopped by when I was in the area last week to see what, if anything, was happening and it's now much more brown than green.  The tomato plants are still making a riot scene of the back half of the garden though.  We may need some clippers to help us clear them out when the time comes.  I wasn't expecting to find more than a few little tomatoes hanging on to brown branches, so I was rather surprised with our final harvest.

And yes, that is a cowboy hat - it was in the trunk for whatever reason and proved to be just what I needed.  A rather motley looking harvest and I doubt if some of those tomatoes will ripen, although they're currently wrapped in newspaper on the counter, so we'll see!

These last few weeks may have been the strangest in terms of produce.  Somehow we're still getting a few tomatoes and eggplants but we're also getting huge pumpkins and other winter squash - apples and pears but still peaches.  The markets these days still manage to have almost everything in this strange overlap of cooler but not too cold days.

Now that the growing season is almost over, I find myself thinking of what we'll do next year.  For one, we'll need to get more fruit.  We've been seriously deprived this summer (due to budget, not nature) and I'm not sure yet what concessions I'll make to get some over the winter.  Likely I'll allow California to be considered "local" until spring brings us food again.  And what will we do for growing anything of our own?  We're connected to a few people who started a community garden up the street from us.  It has promise!  For now though, I will content myself with the last tomatoes, some big pumpkins and more apples and pears than I currently know what to do with and start my reading and planning and dreaming once again.