End of season lazy?

I find myself not caring what goes on in the garden lately. Yes, I have more on my plate the past few weeks but once I could see the harvest was almost over I don't even go check every day. I am sure the poor lima beans need my attention but somehow I just don't care! I just ask my BF to pull stuff out - the eggplants are next.

Is this normal to stop being on top of things as the season winds down? What does everyone else do, those of us with one growing season anyway?

-Kim

kim - i actually look forward to putting my garden"to sleep". after i pick the last of the tomatoes and peppers and whatever else i have i pull out all the plants and lay them down in the garden. then i take all the old grass clippings i've said during the spring and summer and put them over the garden and rototill them into the soil. after that i take some more clippings and throw them on top and start planning for next year.

so you till in your old plants and let them decompose over the winter? I didn't know they would break down so quickly. We also use grass clippings both as mulch during the growing season and the winter.

-Kim

I'm terribly behind in taking care of the garden. We're having record breaking heat, even for Texas, and working outside is truly dangerous. Still hot at dusk and even early morning is unbearable. Should be only 101 today, but that will break another record for this late in the year. We're expecting winter to be colder than average, so October is do-it-or-else time.

Kim, I too find that my garden interest dwindles this time of year. Maybe its just burn-out or maybe because fall is in the air (38F this AM).

Jim

I can see both sides of the coin. I'm tired of all the canning and harvesting chores, but not ready for the flowers to die. I'm like Herbie43 about putting the beds to rest. I also go around to all my neighbors and acquaintences and perfect strangers and collect their leaves in late october to mulch and till in. I think alot of the lethargy this time of year springs from sadness on my part that for the next 6 months, it's too dark and cold to garden.

My garden was impeccable all season and is now a mess. Lots of wasted veggies rotting. I guess once the plants peak I begin to turn my attention elsewhere.

Here in "one growing season" land it seems like by the time the garden reaches it's full glory it's also time to start cleaning up and shutting down. Mighty fine line of time between beautiful and yuck! I also begin to lose interest by August and just let everything do what it wants till the end. Tomorrow is the end. Almost everything gets pulled out and cleaned up while the weather is still warm enough to work outside. Yes it's sad in one way but I'm actually looking forward to hunkering down for the winter. I don't think I could handle year-round gardening...I love the seasons and the break they provide.

Short season gardening is so intense that I think we do get a burnout. I've just finished canning the last of the green beans, the tomatoes probably got frosted but a few in the middle of the plant mounds might be salvagable to ripen on the table in the basement, the Butternut squash needed more time to ripen and harden but I think last night's frost probably damaged their keeping ability so I will be cooking, mashing and freezing them in bags instead of just storing whole squash this year. I dug the potatoes, pulled the carrots, and now I think it's time to cut stuff down and get the tiller going in the next few days. Some things get composted but the smaller stuff and the cornstalks get rototilled and I have a lot of manure to add to it this fall that will go under if I can get my efforts coordinated with the weather and other activities. After 3 1/2 months of weeding, watering and tending I just pretty much let things go when canning season starts. I irrigate the garden running water down ditches next to the rows, so I can pick beans while I water the corn, etc. It isn't overgrown with weeds this year because I kept after them early in the season so that is progress, less weeds next year! Here is a pic of the corn patch with irrigation water running down the ditch next to the row.

Another part of the vegie garden.

I think beans growing on these teepees look so cool. These are Kentucky Wonders, my grandpa grew them in the 50's, a good variety with a real beany flavor!

Another view.

And one more.

After viewing these pics, don't you think a bit of burnout might be sorta normal?

Thanks Mary for this link...

I disagree with all of you about the one season stuff....been there-done that.....

Now that I have eternal summer, I think of how I felt when I lived in Rochester, NY......it's the same way you do and I think it's a form of depression....at least it was for me. You know that everything that you have worked so hard for to make it all beautiful is going to die before your eyes in a couple of weeks.....who wouldn't be depressed?????? I was a mess for 43 years until I moved to FL..... Every year I went thru the same ....I started in Sept,,,,just crying...what a picture I was...lol

Well, that's my thought for today. It's normal, I guess....

Solution: All move down here with me....it's great.

Hap

Now Hap - you might not know that I just moved from Ft. Lauderdale last year. This is only my 2nd year of 'seasons'. I was too hot and miserable to do anything outside in FL so gardening (especially veggie) is really new to me! You on the other hand have found your perfect climate - good for you!

Mary, all your descriptions of what was done, is being done and needs to be done managed to tire me out just reading them!! Those lima's are still hanging in my garden....and I have some spaghetti sqash to roast and freeze. It is the poor herbs that really depress me!!! Maybe Iwill bring some in under grow lights? just to have some for the winter months.

-Kim

I am so eager to till it all under and finish it I get irrated at the people who have said yes they want more stuff and haven"t come yet.Even Linda drags out the last of the potatoes wanting to keep them in the gound to keep them fresher which delays me.

I remember one year I had so many beans that just kept coming out of self defense I took the riding lawn mower to them and mulched them.

I am tied of weeding watering and spending every spare minute helping make it a success yet I am looking at the seed catalogs and picking some things to grow next year lol. The garden just is not the same for men when it"s beauty dims. Yes there is a type of beauty seeing hundreds of tomatoes hanging on the plants even if the plants look crummy

tired tomatoes

Blue, sorry I missed you....

I love the heat and I out in it all the time. I do not work hard or fast and come in about every 45 min to 1 hour for a DG break and some water. But it's not unusual to find me out at 2pm at 99 degrees in the shade. For some reason my helper quit me.....?????

eweed, I can just see you with that Grinch Grin on your face as you mow away at the beans....ROTFL.....determined bugger, aren't you....lol

I love it..

Hap

Not depressed here, just tired!! I also do the in and out, in and out all day to stay comfortable.

eweed, tell us what happened next after you mowed the beans.......... fireworks?

I just came in ffrom picking tomatoes in the dark to take to work to give away now this is silly it was raining to boot now the tomatoes better beware the weed eater lol.

Oh there was fire works allright Linda had promised some one they could have them . The kids copied me a week later in a flower bed mowing down some perrinals plugging the mower and burning the belt lol you would have thought something serious had just happened ha ha I just reported to the couch.

Gonna be more fire works here soon she wants to overwinter some brugs in MY green house hmmmm Brugs equal bugs. Ernie

The tilling starts Saturday but not the tomatoes

Methinks she needs her own greenhouse.

Sounds like for most gardeners the journey is more fun & exciting that the destination.

LD

No no, the destination was all those tomatoes, that is fun and exciting. It's the other side of the hill that is not so fun - until the planning part comes around again:) We still have ripe ones out there. I will keep picking until frost!

-Kim