Goodbye November...

Yesterday, the last day of November, Greg announced all the outside work was basically done and now he can enjoy winter.  😊

In November, the rogue Mulberry tree came completely down and we hired a tree removal company to take the stump all the way to the ground and grind it up.   The shrubs it was growing amongst will look so much better next summer.

Greg spent a number of autumn afternoons riding the lawn mower pulling a leaf sweep to clean up the brown leaves that took their time falling all month long.  And yesterday cleaned the last of the leaves out of the gutters.

The leaves and sheared pampas grass had their final burn on the last day of November.

As for my contribution this autumn... 

I covered the asparagus patch with the piddly little amount of leaf mold my compost bin produced, then I added new leaves to the compost bins.  Hopefully with a second bin, we'll have a bit more leaf mold next year.  Looking at the picture, I wish I'd collected more leaves, though...

I didn't have it in me to do any serious cleaning up of the strawberry bed, so I just covered it with straw for the winter this past week, and plan to neaten things up before the strawberry plants start blooming next spring.

As I was preparing to spread leaf mold on the asparagus patch, I found a couple of tiny asparagus spears growing.  I don't know if this is normal, but I was not expecting to find a tender young plant trying to get a start so late in the year.

That pretty much wraps up the garden and yard work for another year.  Last spring, I planted some things in the garden - mostly flowers, but also a few vegetables.  It turned out with surgery in June to heal from, I couldn't really tend it.  I didn't expect it to take so long to heal.  I don't regret the hard work in May, though.  Time spent tilling and planting was a welcome distraction from what was ahead for me the next 5 months.  Greg must have sensed this over the summer as we sat out back on cool evenings looking at a barren garden.  He never complained or suggested that the effort in May was wasted.  I was thankful for what was never said - it felt wonderfully generous. 

I'm looking forward to next spring and, hopefully, feeling up to putting in a garden again.  Another spring, another chance to grow things...

~~~~~